Water area changes of the Tonle Sap Lake based on remote sensing data

摘要

The Tonle Sap Lake plays a very important role in regulating the downstream flood of the Mekong River. It is necessary to understand its temporal changes of water area of the lake and to analyze its relation with the flood processes of the Mekong River. Monthly water area from June 2013 to May 2014 were monitored based on the multi-temporal images of HJ-1 satellite in this paper. Normalized difference water index (NDWI) was used to extract the water area. It is found that the water area of the lake had a dramatic increase from September to December. Moreover, after reaching its maximum in December 2013, the water area quickly decreased by 11463km~2 in only half month time from December to January. It kept rather stable at a lower level from February to May in 2014. It is feasible, fast and reliable to monitor and analyze the change of lake water area based on remote sensing method with important application prospect.