Simulation of the water storage capacity of Siling Co Lake on the
Tibetan Plateau and its hydrological response to climate change
Abstract
Due to their special geographical locations and environments, plateau
lakes play a key role in maintaining regional water balance, but lake
water storage changes are upsetting this balance. Based on data from
lakes on the Tibetan Plateau (TP), this study used the Spatial Processes
in Hydrology (SPHY) model to simulate the runoff process in the Siling
Co basin from 2000-2016 and estimated the changes in water storage of
Siling Co and the contribution of each component of runoff into the
lake. The results showed that the water storage capacity of Siling Co
has increased by 1.157 billion m 3/yr, declines in
precipitation have significantly reduced baseflow(BF), rainfall
runoff(RR), and Snow runoff(SR), while temperature increases have raised
glacier runoff(GR). The simulated average runoff showed that BF, GF, RR,
and SR contribute 24%, 22%, 16%, and 38%, respectively, of the flow
into Siling Co. Based on hypothetical climate change scenarios and two
Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSP1-2.6 and SSP3-7.0) from the
MRI-ESM2-0 GCMs, this study estimated that a 10% increase in
precipitation could lead to a 28.45% increase in total runoff, while a
1 °C increase in temperature could lead to a 9.49% decrease in runoff.
The average runoff depth of the basin is expected to increase by
29.77-39.13 mm, since the temperature and precipitation may increase
significantly from 2020-2050. The intensification of glacial melting
caused by the increase in temperature continues, posing a greater
challenge to many water resources management problems caused by the
expansion of lakes.