A dataset of trophic state index for nation-scale lakes in China

The trophic state index (TSI) serves as a key indicator for understanding the spatial pattern and temporal variation in lake eutrophication, which has not been fully explored for long-term environmental monitoring, especially for small and medium lakes. Landsat satellites provide the capability of monitoring the temporal and spatial distribution of small lakes with a 30 m spatial resolution, which offers an effective complement. Here we generated a dataset of TSI for lakes in China (CNLTSI) using Landsat archives (Landsat-5 TM, Landsat-7 ETM+, and Landsat-8 OLI) from 1984 to 2023, which contains 2693 predominantly small to medium nationwide lakes in China in the past 4 decades. The dataset produced has a spatial resolution of 30 m and varying temporal resolution due to differences in satellite overpasses and cloud interference.