Wan et al. (2026) Elevation-dependent hydrological vulnerability of lakes and reservoirs to evaporation loss in the Yarlung Zangbo River Basin, Tibetan Plateau

Identification

• Journal: Journal of Hydrology
• Year: 2026
• Date: 2026-08-14
• Authors: Chengwei Wan, Chenghao Chen, Grzegorz Skrzypek, John J. Gibson, Xuegao Chen, Xiang Xu, Peng Yi, Kei Yoshimura, Hayoung Bong, Xicai Pan
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jhydrol.2026.136253

Research Groups

• West Australian Biogeochemistry Centre, School of Biological Sciences, The University of Western Australia, Perth 6000, WA, Australia
• Department of Geotechnical Engineering, Nanjing Hydraulic Research Institute, Nanjing 210029, China
• InnoTech Alberta, Calgary, AB, Canada
• Key Laboratory of Groundwater Protection and Utilization-National Key Laboratory Cultivation and Development Site, School of Earth Sciences and Engineering, Hohai University, Nanjing 211100, China
• Key Laboratory of Western China’s Environmental Systems (Ministry of Education), College of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, China
• National Key Laboratory of Water Disaster Prevention, Hohai University, Nanjing 210098, China
• Institute of Industrial Science, The University of Tokyo, Kashiwa, Japan
• NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, New York, NY, USA
• State Key Laboratory of Soil and Sustainable Agriculture, Institute of Soil Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing 210008, Jiangsu, China

Short Summary

This study investigates the elevation-dependent hydrological vulnerability of lakes and reservoirs to evaporation loss in the Yarlung Zangbo River Basin, Tibetan Plateau. The results reveal that natural lakes exhibit a strong positive correlation with elevation, while artificial reservoirs show a negative altitudinal evaporative gradient.

Objective

• Investigate the impact of elevation on hydrological vulnerability of surface water bodies in the Yarlung Zangbo River Basin.
• Quantify evaporation loss and its isotopic signature across different aquatic systems.
• Evaluate the role of anthropogenic activities on altering natural hydrological regimes.

Study Configuration

• Spatial Scale: The study focuses on the middle reaches of the Yarlung Zangbo River Basin, covering an area of approximately 30,000 km² in the Tibetan Plateau.
• Temporal Scale: The research spans two distinct periods: October 2022 (post-monsoon onset of the dry season) and March-April 2023 (pre-monsoon late dry season).

Methodology and Data

• Models used: Isotope Mass Balance (IMB) models based on snapshot sampling campaigns, including a steady-state model for natural lakes and a transient non-steady-state model for reservoirs.
• Data sources: High-resolution geospatial, meteorological, and hydrological datasets, including the Third Pole Meteorological Forcing Dataset (TPMFD), Phenology-Snow Penman model, IsoGSM4, ERA5 reanalysis fields, and Sentinel-1 SAR-derived dataset.

Main Results

• Natural lakes exhibit a strong positive correlation with elevation, with an average evaporative loss index of 0.27 ± 0.19.
• Artificial reservoirs show a negative altitudinal evaporative gradient, with evaporation accounting for 0.47 ± 0.16 of total water losses in low-elevation shallow basins during the dry season.
• The study reveals that high-altitude reservoirs maintain a highly efficient water supply status, buffered by massive glacier meltwater baseflow.

Contributions

• This study provides new insights into the elevation-dependent hydrological vulnerability of surface water bodies in the Yarlung Zangbo River Basin.
• The results highlight the importance of considering anthropogenic activities on altering natural hydrological regimes.
• The study contributes to understanding the complex evaporative processes of high-altitude lakes and reservoirs.

Funding

• This research was funded by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2020YFA0607502).
• Additional funding was provided by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (42022014, 42161130095).

Citation

@article{Wan2026Elevationdependent,
  author = {Wan, Chengwei and Chen, Chenghao and Skrzypek, Grzegorz and Gibson, John J. and Chen, Xuegao and Xu, Xiang and Yi, Peng and Yoshimura, Kei and Bong, Hayoung and Pan, Xicai},
  title = {Elevation-dependent hydrological vulnerability of lakes and reservoirs to evaporation loss in the Yarlung Zangbo River Basin, Tibetan Plateau},
  journal = {Journal of Hydrology},
  year = {2026},
  doi = {10.1016/j.jhydrol.2026.136253},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2026.136253}
}