Abstract: Based on multi-temporal Landsat remote sensing image data, the temporal and spatial changes of lakes in Wuhan City Circle from 1994 to 2015 were monitored dynamically. At the same time, Using land use cover obtained from remote sensing images in 1994, 2003, 2009, and 2015, combining with climate and economic data, multivariate statistical methods were used to quantitatively analyze the driving factors of the lake evolution. The results show that during the 21 years, the lake area in Wuhan City Circle showed a decreasing trend overall. The evolution process can be roughly divided into three stages: the period of complex changes in lake area(1994-2003), the period of rapid reduction in lake area (2003-2009) and the period of slow reduction in lake area (2009-2015). The most prominent decrease in lake area occurred at the second stage with total lake area declining by 117 km² totally. The driving factors for lake area changes include human activities and climate change. Human activities are the main driving factors that dominate the evolution of lakes. Among them, urban expansion has the greatest impact in lake evolution, followed by population pressure and agricultural development. The impact coefficients are 0.54, 0.51, and 0.47 respectively. Climate change has also contributed to lake evolution in Wuhan City Circle, but it has less influence than human activities.

Key words: Wuhan City Circle, lake dynamic monitoring, multiple regression, driving force