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Preliminary analysis of spatiotemporal pattern of global land surface water

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  • Special Topic: Remote Sensing and Global Change
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Abstract

Land surface water (LSW) is one of the most important resources for human survival and development, and it is also a main component of global water recycling. A full understanding of the spatial distribution of land surface water and a continuous measuring of its dynamics can support to diagnose the global ecosystem and environment. Based on the Global Land 30-water 2000 and Global Land 30-water 2010 products, this research analyzed the spatial distribution pattern and temporal fluctuation of land surface water under scale-levels of global, latitude and longitude, continents, and climate zones. The Global Land 30-water products were corrected the temporal inconsistency of original remotely sensed data using MODIS time-series data, and then calculated the indices such as water area, water ration and coefficient of spatial variation for further analysis. Results show that total water area of land surface is about 3.68 million km2 (2010), and occupies 2.73% of land area. The spatial distribution of land surface water is extremely uneven and is gathered mainly in mid- to high-latitude area of the Northern Hemisphere and tropic area. The comparison of water ratio between 2000 and 2010 indicates the overall fluctuation is small but spatially differentiated. The Global Land 30-water products and the statistics provided the fundamental information for analyzing the spatial distribution pattern and temporal fluctuation of land surface water and diagnosing the global ecosystem and environment.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Earth Surface Processes and Resource Ecology, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, 100875, China

    Xin Cao, Yang Li & Jin Chen

  2. National Geomatics Center of China, Beijing, 100830, China

    Jun Chen, LiJun Chen, AnPing Liao, ChaoYing He & Shu Peng

  3. International Institute for Earth System Science, Nanjing University, Nanjing, 210093, China

    FangDi Sun

  4. College of GeoExploration Science and Technology, Jilin University, Changchun, 130026, China

    Lei Li

  5. Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, China

    ZhongHui Lin

  6. China Institute of Water Resources and Hydropower Research, Beijing, 100038, China

    ZhiGuo Pang

Authors
  1. Xin Cao
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  2. Jun Chen
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  3. LiJun Chen
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  4. AnPing Liao
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  5. FangDi Sun
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  6. Yang Li
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  7. Lei Li
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  8. ZhongHui Lin
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  9. ZhiGuo Pang
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  10. Jin Chen
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  11. ChaoYing He
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  12. Shu Peng
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jun Chen.

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Cao, X., Chen, J., Chen, L. et al. Preliminary analysis of spatiotemporal pattern of global land surface water. Sci. China Earth Sci. 57, 2330–2339 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11430-014-4929-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11430-014-4929-x

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