Multitemporal Mapping and Climatic Background of Xinjiang Plain Lakes During the Past 120 Years

This dataset contains multi-temporal lake vector data (ESRI shapefiles) representing the spatial extent of plain lakes in Xinjiang, China, from 1900 to 2020. The lake polygons were reconstructed by integrating historical military and topographic maps (pre-1970s) and Landsat-based China Lake Dataset (post-1970s), providing centennial-scale insights into lake area dynamics and geomorphological evolution in arid inland basins.
The dataset includes shapefiles for the following years: 1900, 1920, 1935, 1950, 1964, 1970, 1990, 1995, 2000, 2005, 2010, 2015, and 2020. Each file contains lake polygon features and related attribute information and is compatible with standard GIS software .
This data can be used to explore lake–climate–human interactions, hydrological changes, and water resource dynamics in arid regions over the past century. The background climatic and socioeconomic datasets are cited and linked in the manuscript and are not included here.