Monitoring the physical changes of lakes Bakhtegan and Tashk through land surface temperature and groundwater-level changes using remote-sensing technology

Abstract

Conventional methods are inefficient and costly when it comes to collecting information on changes in water level and land surface temperatures (LST). Whereas, satellite data can be used to comprehensively investigate these parameters. By duplicating telemetry data at different times, it is possible to identify and study variable and dynamic phenomena in the environment. Overall, any change in the land surface has severe effects on the weather in these areas. Drying inland lakes is one of the emerging meteorological problems, such as the drying of Bakhtegan and Tashk lakes. The purpose of this research is the changes in Tashk and Bakhtegan lakes. In this study, Landsat 5–8 satellite data and the NDWI index were used to calculate the area of Tashk and Bakhtegan lakes from 1986 to 2018. During the study period, the area of the aforementioned lakes decreased significantly, so Lake Bakhtegan has dried up completely since 2009. As a result of coding LST in the Google Earth Engine system, the average land surface temperature has increased from 22.1 °C in 1986 to 30.34 °C in 2018, an increase of more than 8 °C. Furthermore, using the Grace satellite data and studying the change in groundwater level, it has been found that the highest rate of groundwater drop occurred in 2017 by 20 cm, and there is a general decreasing trend of more than 8 cm/year. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.