Domino effect of a natural cascade alpine lake system on the Third Pole

A dataset of endorheic basins on detailed delineation and classification for the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau

Endorheic basins are important geomorphological and ecological units on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau (QTP), which is undergoing a rapid evolution of its lake system structure and drainage reorganization that is threatening local ecology, infrastructures and residuals owing to climate change. This dataset provides a detailed delineation and classification of endorheic basins on the QTP for understanding the complex dynamics under climate changes. A newly-developed algorithm, namely the Joint Elevation-Area Threshold (JEAT) algorithm (Liu et al, 2024), is applied for delineating endorheic basins based on digital elevation model (DEM). A total of 184 endorheic basins were divided, of which the permanent divide lines were characterized. All the endorheic basins were further categorized into five groups based on the hydraulic connectivity attributes, which have been commonly observed since 2000. The dataset also includes basic information such as drainage area, water surface area, and water storage volume of each endorheic basin. It is particularly beneficial for digital watershed analysis towards ecological restoration and water resource management on the environmentally vulnerable QTP.

An intra-annual 30-m dataset of small lakes of the Qilian Mountains for the period 1987-2020

Small lakes (areas between 0.01 km² and 1 km²) on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau (QTP) are prone to fluctuations in number and area, with serious implications for the surface water storage and water and carbon cycles of this fragile environment. However, there are no detailed long-term datasets of the small lakes of the QTP. Therefore, the intra-annual changes of small lakes in the Qilian Mountains region (QMR) in the northeastern part of the QTP were investigated. The small lake water bodies (SLWB) in the QMR were extracted by improving existing commonly used waterbody extraction algorithms. Using the Google Earth Engine platform and 13,297 Landsat TM/ETM + /OLI images, the SLWB of the QMR were extracted from 1987 to 2020 applying the improved algorithm, cross-validation and manual corrections. The reliability, uncertainty and limitations of the improved algorithm were discussed. An intra-annual small lake dataset for QMR (QMR-SLD) from 1987 to 2020 was released, containing eight attributes: code, perimeter (km), area (km²), latitude and longitude, elevation (m), area error, relative error (%), and subregion.