More than half of the Earth's largest lakes are shrinking simultaneously: satellites reveal that 53% of the largest lakes and reservoirs have lost water over three decades, in a collapse equivalent to 17 times the largest reservoir in the United States.

More than half of the Earth’s largest lakes are shrinking simultaneously: satellites reveal that 53% of the largest lakes and reservoirs have lost water over three decades, in a collapse equivalent to 17 times the largest reservoir in the United States.

Written by Valdemar Medeiros

Published on 20/06/2026 at 23:17

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Study from Science shows that 53% of the largest lakes and reservoirs lost water between 1992 and 2020, expanding the global alert on water security.

According to a study published in Science in May 2023, 53% of the 1,972 largest lakes and reservoirs on the planet lost water in a statistically significant way between 1992 and 2020. The work gathered three decades of satellite observations, climate data, and hydrological models to measure, for the first time on a global scale, how water storage is changing in the Earth’s largest bodies of water.

The alert is especially serious because lakes store about 87% of all the planet’s surface liquid freshwater, a crucial reserve for human supply, irrigation, power generation, and ecosystem maintenance. According to the authors, what previously seemed like a sequence of isolated crises in famous lakes now appears as a global trend of water loss.

Study from Science analyzed nearly 2,000 lakes and reservoirs over 28 years

The research evaluated the 1,972 largest lakes and reservoirs in the world over 28 years, covering the period from October 1992 to September 2020.

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Water loss already equals 17 times Lake Mead and turns the problem into a planetary alert

According to the release by CIRES, the volume lost by the analyzed lakes is comparable in magnitude to 17 times Lake Mead, the largest reservoir in the United States. It is a number that helps translate a silent but gigantic change in the geography of freshwater available on the Earth’s surface.

The weight of this result increases because lakes occupy a relatively small portion of the planet’s surface but concentrate most of the surface liquid freshwater.

When these systems shrink, the impact is not limited to the landscape: it advances over supply, agriculture, energy, and ecological balance in various regions at the same time.

Natural lakes and reservoirs are drying up for different reasons

In natural lakes, the study attributes the net volume loss mainly to climate warming, increased evaporative demand, and human water consumption. In other words, a significant part of the problem comes from the combination of higher temperatures, increased evaporation, and direct water withdrawal for human use.

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In artificial reservoirs, the dominant mechanism is different. The study points out that sedimentation leads the loss of storage capacity in existing reservoirs because sediments transported by rivers begin to occupy the space previously filled by water.

The team also concluded that almost two-thirds of the Earth’s large reservoirs have suffered significant water losses.

Even lakes in humid regions do not escape the global water crisis

One of the most concerning findings is that water loss was not restricted to arid areas. According to CIRES, lakes in dry and humid regions are losing volume, including humid tropical lakes and Arctic lakes, indicating a much broader drying trend than previously imagined.

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The human reach of the problem is also enormous. The authors estimate that about one-quarter of the world’s population, around 2 billion people, live in the basin of a drying lake.

At the same time, the study indicates that reversal is not impossible: the case of Lake Sevan in Armenia showed an increase in storage over the past two decades, associated with the implementation of conservation laws on water withdrawal since the early 2000s.

The message from the satellites is harsh, but still leaves room for reaction

The study reinforces that the lake crisis is not just a scientific curiosity nor a distant problem. It already affects strategic reservoirs, basins inhabited by billions of people, and critical sources of water and energy, requiring policies that simultaneously address climate change, excessive consumption, and sedimentation.

The main contribution of the research is precisely in transforming a previously fragmented phenomenon into a global risk map.

With this more precise tracking, public managers and communities now have a more solid foundation to protect lakes and reservoirs before gradual losses turn into collapses that are difficult to reverse.

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More than half of the Earth’s largest lakes are shrinking simultaneously: satellites reveal that 53% of the largest lakes and reservoirs have lost water over three decades, in a collapse equivalent to 17 times the largest reservoir in the United States.

Study from Science shows that 53% of the largest lakes and reservoirs lost water between 1992 and 2020, expanding the global alert on water security.

Study from Science analyzed nearly 2,000 lakes and reservoirs over 28 years

Water loss already equals 17 times Lake Mead and turns the problem into a planetary alert

Natural lakes and reservoirs are drying up for different reasons

Even lakes in humid regions do not escape the global water crisis

The message from the satellites is harsh, but still leaves room for reaction

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More than half of the Earth’s largest lakes are shrinking simultaneously: satellites reveal that 53% of the largest lakes and reservoirs have lost water over three decades, in a collapse equivalent to 17 times the largest reservoir in the United States.

Study from Science shows that 53% of the largest lakes and reservoirs lost water between 1992 and 2020, expanding the global alert on water security.

Study from Science analyzed nearly 2,000 lakes and reservoirs over 28 years

Water loss already equals 17 times Lake Mead and turns the problem into a planetary alert

Natural lakes and reservoirs are drying up for different reasons

Even lakes in humid regions do not escape the global water crisis

The message from the satellites is harsh, but still leaves room for reaction

Libya built over 4,000 kilometers of underground pipelines to bring water from the Sahara to coastal cities in a project that the government itself called the Eighth Wonder of the World.

Desert sand, previously discarded for being too smooth for concrete, becomes an ecological brick in the United Arab Emirates, dispensing with Portland cement, curing at room temperature, and attempting to transform dunes useless for construction into raw material for a new arid engineering.

He transformed an abandoned plastic water tank into an underground house in the “hobbit hole” style, using only repurposed pallet wood, without heavy machinery or expensive labor.

Chinese woman planted trees for decades while sand buried part of her house, received $5,000 from an American in 1999, and helped transform the desert into a forest of 8 million trees in China.

Almost 6,000 residents live concentrated along a single street nearly 9 km long in the interior of Poland. Houses form a continuous row, and behind them, narrow agricultural strips emerge, creating one of the most unusual rural patterns in Europe.

Described by astronauts as one of the most unlikely natural phenomena on Earth, the Okavango Delta spreads over up to 15,000 square kilometers in the middle of the desert and transforms Botswana into a living labyrinth of channels, islands, and flooded areas.

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Bored at home, a 13-year-old teenager discovered tutorials on building studio apartments, raised $1,500, and turned the family’s backyard into a construction site.

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