Abstract: Lake is a kind of sensitive indicator of climate and environmental changes. Mapping of the area and monitoring of the change of lakes in arid regions are essential to estimate the effects of climate change and human activities on water resources. In this paper, the change of area of the lakes in Central Asia was mapped with the Landsat images in 2010, and the spatial distribution of number and area of the lakes was also discussed. The results were as follows: (1) There were 30 952 lakes larger than 0.01 km² in Central Asia in 2010, and their total area was 496 674.35 km²; (2) There was a power exponential relationship between number and area of the lakes. If the lake size was increased from one logarithmic size class to the next bigger one, the lake number was statistically increased by 4-6 times, and total area of the lakes was enlarged by 1-2 times. Compared with the lakes in other regions in the world, the density of lakes in Central Asia was relatively low; (3) The latitudinal spatial distribution of the lakes was relatively uniform, and the large lakes were mainly distributed in the latitudinal zones of 41°-44°N, 46°N and 48°-50°N. The lakes in the lowaltitude regions were more, and their areas were large. However, the lakes in the highaltitude regions were also more, but their areas were small. The lakes in the mountainous regions, valley wetlands and steppes in north Kazakhstan were more than those in deserts; (4) In recent 20 years, the alpine lakes were stable or in an expansion trend, but areas of the lakes in plains were sharply reduced.

Key words: lake area, lake number, regional difference, spatiotemporal distribution, climate change, Central Asia