scholarly journals Mapping Evapotranspiration, Vegetation and Precipitation Trends in the Catchment of the Shrinking Lake Poopó

2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 73 ◽  
Author(s):  
Juan Torres-Batlló ◽  
Belén Martí-Cardona ◽  
Ramiro Pillco-Zolá

Lake Poopó is located in the Andean Mountain Range Plateau or Altiplano. A general decline in the lake water level has been observed in the last two decades, coinciding roughly with an intensification of agriculture exploitation, such as quinoa crops. Several factors have been linked with the shrinkage of the lake, including climate change, increased irrigation, mining extraction and population growth. Being an endorheic catchment, evapotranspiration (ET) losses are expected to be the main water output mechanism and previous studies demonstrated ET increases using Earth observation (EO) data. In this study, we seek to build upon these earlier findings by analyzing an ET time series dataset of higher spatial and temporal resolution, in conjunction with land cover and precipitation data. More specifically, we performed a spatio-temporal analysis, focusing on wet and dry periods, that showed that ET changes occur primarily in the wet period, while the dry period is approximately stationary. An analysis of vegetation trends performed using 500 MODIS vegetation index products (NDVI) also showed an overall increasing trend during the wet period. Analysis of NDVI and ET across land cover types showed that only croplands had experienced an increase in NDVI and ET losses, while natural covers showed either constant or decreasing NDVI trends together with increases in ET. The larger increase in vegetation and ET losses over agricultural regions, strongly suggests that cropping practices exacerbated water losses in these areas. This quantification provides essential information for the sustainable planning of water resources and land uses in the catchment. Finally, we examined the spatio-temporal trends of the precipitation using the newly available Climate Hazards Group Infrared Precipitation with Stations (CHIRPS-v2) product, which we validated with onsite rainfall measurements. When integrated over the entire catchment, precipitation and ET showed an average increasing trend of 5.2 mm yr−1 and 4.3 mm yr−1, respectively. This result suggests that, despite the increased ET losses, the catchment-wide water storage should have been offset by the higher precipitation. However, this result is only applicable to the catchment-wide water balance, and the location of water may have been altered (e.g., by river abstractions or by the creation of impoundments) to the detriment of the Lake Poopó downstream.

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Juan Torres-Batlló ◽  
Belén Martí-Cardona ◽  
Ramiro Pillco-Zolá

Abstract. Lake Poopó is located in the Andean Mountain Range Plateau or Altiplano. A generalised decline in the lake water level has been observed since 2001, coinciding roughly with an intensification of agriculture exploitations such as quinoa crops. Several factors have been blamed for the lake recession, including climate change, increased farming, mining abstractions and population growth. Being an endorheic catchment, evapotranspiration (ET) losses are expected to be the main water output mechanism. This study used a time series of more than 1000 satellite data based products to map ET and vegetation index trends in the Poopó catchment between 2001 and 2014. The aim was to explore the links between ET, vegetation, land use and the lake recession. The years 2015 and 2016 were excluded of the analysis due to the strong impact of El Niño phenomenon over the study area, which could have masked long term temporal trends related to land use. We quantified the ET losses and vegetation indices for the main cover types in the Poopó catchment and their temporal trends in the study period. It became obvious that cultivated areas were the ones which had experienced the largest increase in water consumption, although they were not in all instances the land covers with the largest losses. This quantification provides essential information for the sustainable planning of water resources and land uses in the catchment. We also collected on-site and satellite precipitation data. When integrated over the entire catchment, the overall ET losses showed a sustained increasing trend at an average rate of 3.2 mm yr−1. Rainfall water inputs followed a similar trend, with a slightly higher increasing rate of 5.2 mm yr−1. Based on these results and from the point of view of the catchment water balance, the ET loss intensification derived from crop expansion has been compensated by the increase in precipitation. Consequently, this study found no clear link between the agriculture intensification and the Lake Poopó recession in the analysed period.


2018 ◽  
Vol 37 (3) ◽  
pp. 219-236 ◽  
Author(s):  
Khalid Mahmood ◽  
Zia Ul-Haq ◽  
Fiza Faizi ◽  
Syeda A. Batol

This study compares the suitability of different satellite-based vegetation indices (VIs) for environmental hazard assessment of municipal solid waste (MSW) open dumps. The compared VIs, as bio-indicators of vegetation health, are normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), soil adjusted vegetation index (SAVI), and modified soil adjusted vegetation index (MSAVI) that have been subject to spatio-temporal analysis. The comparison has been made based on three criteria: one is the exponential moving average (EMA) bias, second is the ease in visually finding the distance of VI curve flattening, and third is the radius of biohazardous zone in relation to the waste heap dumped at them. NDVI has been found to work well when MSW dumps are surrounded by continuous and dense vegetation, otherwise, MSAVI is a better option due to its ability for adjusting soil signals. The hierarchy of the goodness for least EMA bias is MSAVI> SAVI> NDVI with average bias values of 101 m, 203 m, and 270 m, respectively. Estimations using NDVI have been found unable to satisfy the direct relationship between waste heap and hazardous zone size and have given a false exaggeration of 374 m for relatively smaller dump as compared to the bigger one. The same false exaggeration for SAVI and MSAVI is measured to be 86 m and -14 m, respectively. So MSAVI is the only VI that has shown the true relation of waste heap and hazardous zone size. The best visualization of distance-dependent vegetation health away from the dumps is also provided by MSAVI.


2014 ◽  
Vol 16 (5) ◽  
pp. 955-965

<div> <p>Wadi Auranah is one of the potential wadis in respect of land use, located on the western shield (Hijaz escarpment) of Saudi Arabia. A spatio-temporal change assessment of this wadi (valley) was conducted with the help of landsat data. The results of the spectral analysis and NDVI for vegetation changes assessment reveals a continuous increasing trend of land cover biomass in specific parts of the wadi. Geological review of geologic map supports soil fertility. It is observed from field assessment of the study area that has potential for more land more to be cultivated. About 73 km<sup>2</sup> of vegetation land cover has been increased in the last 20 years. Treated wastewater is the main source of water supply that is used for afforestation and cultivation purpose.</p> </div> <p>&nbsp;</p>


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Firdos Khan ◽  
Shaukat Ali ◽  
Christoph Mayer ◽  
Hamd Ullah ◽  
Sher Muhammad

Abstract This study investigates contemporary climate change and spatio-temporal analysis of climate extremes in Pakistan (divided into five homogenous climate zones) using observed data, categorized between 1962–1990 and 1991–2019. The results show that on the average, the changes in temperature and precipitation are significant at 5 % significance level throughout Pakistan in most of the seasons. The spatio-temporal trend analysis of consecutive dry days (CDD) shows an increasing trend during 1991–2019 except in zone 4 indicating throughout decreasing trend. PRCPTOT (annual total wet-day precipitation), R10 (number of heavy precipitation days), R20 (number of very heavy precipitation days) and R25mm (extremely heavy precipitation days) are significantly decreasing (increasing) during 1962–1990 (1991–2019) in North Pakistan. Summer days (SU25) increased across the country, except in zone 4 with a decrease. TX10p (Cool days) decreased across the country except an increase in zone 1 and zone 2 during 1962–1990. TX90p (Warm days) has an increasing trend during 1991–2019 except zone 5 and decreasing trend during 1962–1990 except zone 2 and 5. The Mann-Kendal test indicates increasing precipitation (DJF) and decreasing maximum and minimum temperature (JJA) in the Karakoram region during 1962–1990. The decadal analysis suggests decreasing precipitation during 1991–2019 and increasing temperature (maximum and minimum) during 2010–2019 which is in line with the recently confirmed slight mass loss of glaciers against Karakoram Anomaly.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jaime Gaona ◽  
Pere Quintana-Seguí ◽  
Maria José Escorihuela

&lt;p&gt;Droughts in the Iberian Peninsula are a natural hazard of great relevance due to their recurrence, severity and impact on multiple environmental and socioeconomic aspects. The Ebro Basin, located in the NE of the Iberian Peninsula, is particularly vulnerable to drought with consequences on agriculture, urban water supply and hydropower. This study, performed within the Project HUMID (CGL2017-85687-R), aims at evaluating the influence of the climatic, land cover and soil characteristics on the interactions between rainfall, evapotranspiration and soil moisture anomalies which define the spatio-temporal drought patterns in the basin.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The onset, propagation and mitigation of droughts in the Iberian Peninsula is driven by anomalies of rainfall, evapotranspiration and soil moisture, which are related by feedback processes. To test the relative importance of such anomalies, we evaluate the contribution of climatic, land-cover and geologic heterogeneity on the definition of the spatio-temporal patterns of drought. We use the K&amp;#246;ppen-Geiger climatic classification to assess how the contrasting climatic types within the basin determine differences on drought behavior. Land-cover types that govern the partition between evaporation and transpiration are also of great interest to discern the influence of vegetation and crop types on the anomalies of evapotranspiration across the distinct regions of the basin (e.g. forested mountains vs. crop-dominated areas). The third physical characteristic whose effect on drought we investigate is the impact of soil properties on soil moisture anomalies.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The maps and time series used for the spatio-temporal analysis are based on drought indices calculated with high-resolution datasets from remote sensing (MOD16A2ET and SMOS1km) and the land-surface model SURFEX-ISBA. The Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI), the EvapoTranspiration Deficit Index (ETDI) and the Soil Moisture Deficit Index (SMDI) are the three indices chosen to characterize the anomalies of the corresponding rainfall (atmospheric), evapotranspiration (atmosphere-land interface) and soil moisture (land) anomalies (components of the water balance). The comparison of the correlations of the indices (with different time lags) between contrasting regions offers insights about the impact of climate, land-cover and soil properties in the dominance, the timing of the response and memory aspects of the interactions. The high spatial and temporal resolution of remote sensing and land-surface model data allows adopting time and spatial scales suitable to investigate the influence of these physical factors with detail beyond comparison with ground-based datasets.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The spatial and temporal analysis prove useful to investigate the physical factors of influence on the anomalies between rainfall, evapotranspiration and soil moisture. This approach facilitates the physical interpretation of the anomalies of drought indices aiming to improve the characterization of drought in heterogeneous semi-arid areas like the Ebro River Basin.&lt;/p&gt;


2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. 724 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simon Measho ◽  
Baozhang Chen ◽  
Yongyut Trisurat ◽  
Petri Pellikka ◽  
Lifeng Guo ◽  
...  

There is a growing concern over change in vegetation dynamics and drought patterns with the increasing climate variability and warming trends in Africa, particularly in the semiarid regions of East Africa. Here, several geospatial techniques and datasets were used to analyze the spatio-temporal vegetation dynamics in response to climate (precipitation and temperature) and drought in Eritrea from 2000 to 2017. A pixel-based trend analysis was performed, and a Pearson correlation coefficient was computed between vegetation indices and climate variables. In addition, vegetation condition index (VCI) and standard precipitation index (SPI) classifications were used to assess drought patterns in the country. The results demonstrated that there was a decreasing NDVI (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index) slope at both annual and seasonal time scales. In the study area, 57.1% of the pixels showed a decreasing annual NDVI trend, while the significance was higher in South-Western Eritrea. In most of the agro-ecological zones, the shrublands and croplands showed decreasing NDVI trends. About 87.16% of the study area had a positive correlation between growing season NDVI and precipitation (39.34%, p < 0.05). The Gash Barka region of the country showed the strongest and most significant correlations between NDVI and precipitation values. The specific drought assessments based on VCI and SPI summarized that Eritrea had been exposed to recurrent droughts of moderate to extreme conditions during the last 18 years. Based on the correlation analysis and drought patterns, this study confirms that low precipitation was mainly attributed to the slowly declining vegetation trends and increased drought conditions in the semi-arid region. Therefore, immediate action is needed to minimize the negative impact of climate variability and increasing aridity in vegetation and ecosystem services.


Author(s):  
Wentao Yang ◽  
Min Deng ◽  
Chaokui Li ◽  
Jincai Huang

Understanding the spatio-temporal characteristics or patterns of the 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) epidemic is critical in effectively preventing and controlling this epidemic. However, no research analyzed the spatial dependency and temporal dynamics of 2019-nCoV. Consequently, this research aims to detect the spatio-temporal patterns of the 2019-nCoV epidemic using spatio-temporal analysis methods at the county level in Hubei province. The Mann–Kendall and Pettitt methods were used to identify the temporal trends and abrupt changes in the time series of daily new confirmed cases, respectively. The local Moran’s I index was applied to uncover the spatial patterns of the incidence rate, including spatial clusters and outliers. On the basis of the data from January 26 to February 11, 2020, we found that there were 11 areas with different types of temporal patterns of daily new confirmed cases. The pattern characterized by an increasing trend and abrupt change is mainly attributed to the improvement in the ability to diagnose the disease. Spatial clusters with high incidence rates during the period were concentrated in Wuhan Metropolitan Area due to the high intensity of spatial interaction of the population. Therefore, enhancing the ability to diagnose the disease and controlling the movement of the population can be confirmed as effective measures to prevent and control the regional outbreak of the epidemic.


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