Research on Surface Water Monitoring of Poyang Lake Based on Remote Sensing Technologies

Remote sensing derived water area and volume have been widely used in large lakes monitoring. The seed point method was used to monitor the water area and volume of Poyang Lake, as an important international wetland and the largest fresh water lake in China, from 2019 to the flood season in 2020 using ZY3, GF-1, GF-3, GF-6, and BJ-2 data. Furthermore, historical water area and water volume changes of Poyang Lake were analyzed utilizing public data set. The results showed that the water area and water volume of Poyang Lake changed significantly in recent sixty years. It also fluctuated violently during the high water and low water seasons from 2019 to 2020. In the past sixty years, the minimum and maximum water area was 1190.73 km
²
in 1960 and 31 79.31 km
²
in 2019, respectively, and the water volume increased by 1853.62 million cubic meters. The water area difference of Poyang Lake between the high water season and the low water season was more than quadruple, which varied from 3179.21 km
²
in the third quarter in 2019 to 674.01 km
²
in the first quarter in 2020, and the water volume decreased by 489.95 million cubic meters. The flood in 2020 inundated 7834.15 hectares of planting land, 2300.81 hectares of forest and grass coverage, 906.51 hectares of desert and bare land, 2170.87 hectares of water area, 101.78 hectares of housing construction area, and 73.15 hectares of railway and highway. The relevant results provide a scientific basis for the construction of Poyang Lake ecological economic zone and the ecological protection of Poyang Lake wetland and a decision-making reference for flood control and disaster relief in Poyang Lake area.