Changes in monthly surface area, water level, and storage of 194 lakes and reservoirs in the Yangtze River Basin during 1990–2021 using multisource remote sensing data

Long-term, high spatiotemporal resolution of surface water area, water level, and storage changes in the Yangtze River Basin (YRB) has great scientific and practical importance for improving the management of water resources. Here, three distinct area estimations were first derived using the water classification enhancement method, automated water extraction method based on random forest, and the modified normalized difference water index. The optimized area data was determined by comparing against Sentinel-2 with the minimum root mean square error. A new area data was constructed with the optimized area as the primary data, while the remaining datasets were employed to fill in gaps. The elevation-area relationship was used to derive monthly water level. Changes in water storage were calculated by applying the pyramidal frustum formula from surface water area and water level data. Finally, a new comprehensive dataset of the monthly area, level, and storage changes in the 119 lakes and 75 reservoirs across the YRB with area larger than 10 km