Tag : Worldwide

    Scientists Use New Techniques To Identify Lakes And Reservoirs Worldwide

    Identify Lakes And Reservoirs Worldwide
    Inam Ansari
    July20/ 2022

    Minneapolis (St. Paul): A group of researchers have come out with the first-of-its-kind comprehensive global dataset of the Earth's lakes and reservoirs which demonstrates how they have changed over the past 30+ years. The study highlighting the Reservoir and Lake Surface Area Timeseries (ReaLSAT) dataset was recently published in Scientific Data, a peer-reviewed, open-access journal published by Nature. The research was conducted by data scientists from the University of Minnesota Twin Cities with funding from NASA and the U.S. National Science Foundation. The data will provide environmental researchers with new information about land and fresh water use as well as how lakes and reservoirs are being impacted by humans and climate change. The research is also a major advancement in machine learning techniques. A paper highlighting the Reservoir and Lake Surface Area Timeseries (ReaLSAT) dataset was recently published in Scientific Data, a peer-reviewed, open-access journal published by Nature. Highlights of the study include: The ReaLSAT dataset contains the location and surface area variations of 681,137 lakes and reservoirs larger than 0.1 square kilometers (south of 50 degrees north latitude). The previous most comprehensive database, called HydroLAKES, had identified only 245,420 lakes and reservoirs for the part of the world and minimum size being considered in this study. ReaLSAT provides data on the surface area of each body of water for each month from 1984 to 2015. This makes it possible to quantify changes in lake and reservoir area over time, which is key to understanding how changing climate and land use are altering bodies of fresh water. The HydroLAKES data contains only a static shape for each water body. The ReaLS ...

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