ANALYSIS ON THE AREA CHANGES AND ITS INFLUENCING FACTORS OF THE LAKES IN WUHAN CITY BASED ON GOOGLE EARTH ENGINE

Abstract. Urban lakes play an important role in urban development and environmental protection, and lakes are an important city card of Wuhan city. We calculated the lake area of in Wuhan city from 1987 to 2019 and its change over time and in space by using the MNDWI method and the Google Earth Engine (GEE) platform, and explored the driving force of lake area changes by using Pearson correlation coefficient in this paper. The results show: (1) The lakes in Wuhan city were shrinking and the total area decreased from 837.89 km² in 1987 to 734.10 km² in 2019 at a rate of 3.15 km² per year, but changed differently in different stages: increasing in the period of 1987 to1993, decreasing in the period of 1993 to 2004 while being stable in the period of 2004 to 2019. (2) The lakes were mainly distributed in the central and eastern parts of Wuhan city (i.e., Wuchang District, Jiangxia District, and Caidian District). (3) Climate factors and human activities have jointly affected the changes in lake area. In terms of climate factors, the total area of lakes had a strong correlation with precipitation and temperature. In terms of human activities, permanent population had a moderate correlation with the lake changes. The study verified the feasibility of monitoring the long-term lake sequence on the GEE platform, and provided reference for lake protection in Wuhan city.