RESEARCH ON THE LAKES CHANGE IN EJIN ALLUVIAL FAN FROM LONG TIME-SERIES LANDSAT IMAGES

Inland lakes in the arid and semi-arid areas are sensitive to the climate change and human activities, The long time-series remote sensing data, with a capability to provide valuable information of the distribution and changes of inland water bodies, have become an effective tool for lake study. In this paper, the lakes in Ejin alluvial fan, located in a typical arid region in the west of Inner Mongolia, China, are chosen as study lakes. Twenty years period TM data are used to obtain the long time-series and continental information of the lake change from 1987 to 2008. Climate data and hydrological data are also collected for correlational study. The results show that 1) in latest 20 years, the total area of the studied lakes in Ejin alluvial fan reduced firstly then increased after 2000. 2) The area changes of the four lakes are different. 3) Both the environmental change and the man-kind factors are the drivers of the lake change in Ejin alluvial fan. The latter might exert a main influence.