Multisensoral remote sensing based modelling of the water balance of endorheic lakes on the Tibetan Plateau

Abstract

The water balance of endorheic lakes on the Tibetan Plateau plays an important role in the assessment of hydrological system dynamics such as glacier retreat or changing patterns of monsoonal precipitation in relation to global warming effects. Since those lakes are remote and hard to access, multisensoral remote sensing seems to be a valuable tool to generate hydrological relevant information as modelling input (land cover, trends in mountain lake ice cover, etc.) or validation base (lake level changes). Integrative methodological approaches linking state-of-the-art remote sensing with distributed hydrological modelling are the only way to quantify the water balance and to provide a forecast of the future water availability on the Tibetan Plateau.