Characteristic of surface water resources and response to climate change in Northwest of China

摘要

In this paper, the variability characteristic and response to climate change of surface water resources , such as glacier, snow, lake and runoff of rivers in northwest China are analyzed by meteorological, hydrological and remote sensing data. The results show that the melting water has been increasing while glacier has been thinning and deteriorating along with global warming. The runoff of rivers that rely primarily on precipitation as water resource has significantly decreased. However the runoff of rivers originated from mountains shows significant increase as a result of increased melting water, which dominates the water supply, in addition to increased rainfalls since 80s. The water level of most lakes in Xinjiang has dramatically been rising and the areas are expanding because of increased rainfalls and melt water, in contrast to trend of lowering water level and shrinking areas for lakes in Inner Mongolia and Tibetan Plateau.