In recent years

the water surface area of Bosten Lake

which greatly influences local economic development

has exhibited significant fluctuations. To understand the water area variability of Boston Lake and its association with climate change

change analysis is conducted to provide information for the formulation of strategies that are necessary for the protection and sustainable management of the lake. First

a long temporal series of Landsat-5 TM

Landsat=7 ETM+

and Landsat 8 OLI

which consists of 25 scene images

was used to compute the surface area of Bosten Lake from 1988 to 2014. Radiometric

geometric

and atmospheric corrections were executed on the raw remote sensing images to obtain reflectance data

and then the modified normalized difference water index and Otsu image segmentation method were combined to separate water body information from the background in the images. The inter-annual changes and spatial changesin the lake surface area in the past 27 years were monitored and analyzed. Second

the effects of annual precipitation and annual mean temperature changes in Bosten Lake basin on the lake surface area were each investigated using meteorological data; the impact of human activities on the area changes with reference to existing research about the lake water resources was also examined. Third

to compare and verify the accuracy of the lake surface area results derived from the long temporal series of Landsat images

two additional data were used

namely

the lake surface area computed using MODIS images from 2000 to 2014 and the in situ measurement of the water level from 1987 to 2011 by the local water resources survey bureau. With 2002 as the dividing line

theinter-annual changes in the lake surface area that had occurred in the past 27 years can be divided into two stages. 1) From 1988 to 2002

the lake surface area showed a significantly increasing trend

with a total increase of 288.88 km(31.62%) and a mean annual increase of 20.63 km. 2) From 2002 to 2014

the lake surface area showed a sharply decreasing trend

with a total decrease of 281.56 km(23.42%) and a mean annual decrease of 23.46 km. According to the differences in the climatic condition distributions

the Bosten Lake basin was divided into the mountain area and the plain area. Analysis reveals that

from 1988 to 2002

the annual precipitation and annual mean temperature that occurred in the mountain area increased

which shows a significantly positive relationship with the lake surface area. Since 2002

a relative decline had been detected in the annual precipitation in the mountain area

whereas the annual mean temperature in the plain area had increased; water consumption by human activities increased. The lake surface area was affected by climate change

mainly in the mountain area

and human activities from 1988 to 2002. However

after 2002

temperature rise and water consumption increase may be the causes of the decrease in lake surface area.