China’s largest freshwater lake is drying up due to prolonged heat and drought. Poyang Lake in China’s Jiangxi Province often fluctuates between the area of its lake surface between winter and summer. In winter, the water level of the lake is generally very low. Hence, the summer rains cause China’s largest freshwater lake to swell with the inflow of water from the Yangtze River.
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However, in the summer of 2022, the lake did not swell. Indeed, prolonged heat waves and droughts across much of the Yangtze River have drained the lake prematurely and brought water levels to their lowest levels in decades.
Poyang Lake on July 10, 2022
Poyang Lake on August 27, 2022
The Operational Land Imager (OLI) on Landsat 8 acquired the pair of images on July 10, 2022 and August 27, 2022. These images are a composite of OLI observations of infrared, infrared and visible shortwave light.
The highest water level in Poyang Lake this year was June 23, after which the high temperatures and lack of rain caused a rapid drop in the water level in the lake, according to data from Jiangxi Provincial Hydrological Monitoring. Center. By August 6, the water level had dropped to 11.99 meters (39.33 feet), marking the beginning of what the center called the lake’s “dry season”. The minimum was about 100 days earlier than usual. This is the first date water levels have dropped this low since logging began in 1951. The water level then continued to drop and on August 30 was only 8.96m (29, 4 feet).
Details of Lake Poyang, July 10 – August 27, 2022
The extensive retreat of Lake Poyang has disrupted irrigation, shipping and drinking water systems in neighboring communities. Additionally, millions of people across the Yangtze River Basin are affected by extreme heat and drought that stress China’s water supply, agriculture, power generation and industrial operations.
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