Increased surface water evaporation loss induced by reservoir development on the Loess Plateau

Liu, Yao; Xie, Xianhong; Wang, Yibing; Tursun, Arken; Peng, Dawei; Wu, Xinran; Xue, Baolin

doi:10.5194/hess-30-67-2026

Articles | Volume 30, issue 1

https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-30-67-2026

© Author(s) 2026. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-30-67-2026

© Author(s) 2026. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 30, issue 1

Research article

|

09 Jan 2026

Research article |

| 09 Jan 2026

Increased surface water evaporation loss induced by reservoir development on the Loess Plateau

Yao Liu, Xianhong Xie, Yibing Wang, Arken Tursun, Dawei Peng, Xinran Wu, and Baolin Xue

Data sets

Land surface water evaporation during 2000-2018 on the Loess Plateau Yao Liu https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.14963640

ERA5 monthly averaged data on single levels from 1940 to present H. Hersbach et al. https://doi.org/10.24381/cds.f17050d7

China meteorological forcing dataset v1.6 (1979-2018) K. Yang et al. https://doi.org/10.11888/AtmosphericPhysics.tpe.249369.file

ASTER Global Digital Elevation Model V003 NASA/METI/AIST/Japan Spacesystems and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team https://doi.org/10.5067/ASTER/ASTGTM.003

Short summary

Global reservoir construction has improved water supply, but its impact on evaporation losses remains uncertain. Our study examines how reservoir development affects water evaporation in the Loess Plateau of China. We find that evaporation loss has increased due to expanding surface water, particularly from thousands of small- and medium-sized reservoirs. This new finding underscores the need to consider previously overlooked evaporation in the hydrological cycle and future water management.