Articles | Volume 18, issue 6
https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-18-4219-2026
© Author(s) 2026. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-18-4219-2026
© Author(s) 2026. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Data description article
| 
22 Jun 2026
Data description article |
| 22 Jun 2026
| 22 Jun 2026
TPLake-MED: a monthly extent dataset for lakes on the Tibetan Plateau
Siyu Zhao
State Key Laboratory of Remote Sensing and Digital Earth, Faculty of Geographical Science, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China
Beijing Engineering Research Center for Global Land Remote Sensing Products, Faculty of Geographical Science, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China
Xiang Zhao
CORRESPONDING AUTHOR
State Key Laboratory of Remote Sensing and Digital Earth, Faculty of Geographical Science, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China
Beijing Engineering Research Center for Global Land Remote Sensing Products, Faculty of Geographical Science, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China
Jiacheng Zhao
School of Ecology and Applied Meteorology, Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology, Nanjing, Jiangsu 210044, China
Xin Zhang
Department of Computing and Mathematics, Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester M15GD, UK
Xingyu Liu
State Key Laboratory of Remote Sensing and Digital Earth, Faculty of Geographical Science, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China
Beijing Engineering Research Center for Global Land Remote Sensing Products, Faculty of Geographical Science, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China
Chengzhi Yao
State Key Laboratory of Remote Sensing and Digital Earth, Faculty of Geographical Science, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China
Beijing Engineering Research Center for Global Land Remote Sensing Products, Faculty of Geographical Science, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China
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Short summary
We constructed a monthly vector boundary dataset (2000–2024) for lakes ≥ 10 km² on the Tibetan Plateau using Google Earth Engine and MODIS data. A spectral-index random forest (93.21 % accuracy) and post-processing enhanced boundary precision. The dataset (TPLake-MED) shows steady lake expansion (~ 34.91 km2 yr−1) with peak area in September/October. Monthly changes are more significant in the west, and smaller lakes are more sensitive, offering insights for climate and ecosystem management.
We constructed a monthly vector boundary dataset (2000–2024) for lakes ≥ 10 km² on the Tibetan...
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