Hydrological processes are an important driving force of environmental pollutant variation that has aroused global concern. Land use and cover change (LUCC) strongly affects hydrological processes. Remote sensing technology has played an increasingly important role in studying the relationship between LUCC and hydrological processes. This study summarizes the progress of hydrological responses to LUCC. Overall, remote sensing can provide spatially continuous data of land cover and hydrological variables. With the aid of the retrieved data sets, the effects of LUCC on hydrological processes can be evaluated via correlation analysis, multiple regression method, experimental watershed approach and trajectory-based approaches. However, due to the high complexity of geographical systems, it is difficult to quantitatively separate the actual components of the influence of LUCC. The heterogeneous surface properties also lead to various results at different spatial and temporal scales. Future research should meet the challenges in data estimation, research methodology and analysis process.

The surface shortwave radiation budget (Rsn) is one of the main drivers of Earth’s ecosystems and varies with atmospheric and surface conditions. Land use and cover change (LUCC) alters radiation through biogeophysical effects. However, due to the complex interactions between atmospheric and surface factors, it is very challenging to quantify the sole impacts of LUCC. Based on satellite data from the Global Land Surface Satellite (GLASS) Product and Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instruments, this study introduces an observation-based approach for detecting LUCC influences on the Rsn by examining a humid basin over the Dongting Lake Basin, China from 2001 to 2015. Our results showed that the Rsn of the study area presented a decreasing trend due to the combined effects of LUCC and climate change. Generally, LUCC contributed −0.45 W/m² to Rsn at the basin scale, which accounted for 2.53% of the total Rsn change. Furthermore, the LUCC contributions reached −0.69 W/m², 0.21 W/m², and −0.41 W/m² in regions with land transitions of forest→grass, grass→forest, and grass→farmland, which accounted for 5.38%, −4.68%, and 2.40% of the total Rsn change, respectively. Physically, LUCC affected surface radiation by altering the surface properties. Specifically, LUCC induced albedo changes of +0.0039 at the basin scale and +0.0061, −0.0020, and +0.0036 in regions with land transitions of forest→grass, grass→forest, and grass→farmland, respectively. Our findings revealed the impact and process of LUCC on the surface radiation budget, which could support the understanding of the physical mechanisms of LUCC’s impact on ecosystems.

Aerosol forcing has direct, indirect and semidirect effects on radiation and can thus potentially impact recent global temperature changes. However, it is extremely challenging to evaluate the magnitude of aerosol forcing because various factors interact in a complex way to produce temperature change. With the aid of satellite and ground observations, this study, we examine whether aerosols can produce temperature change. Temperature change produced by aerosols occurs when there is a strong aerosol-temperature correlation and a significant aerosol trend. Our results show that aerosols can cause a regional temperature change of 0.027 ± 0.038 . However, the dominant impact occurs over a very small region (1.65%) of the land, resulting in a minor forcing effect (0.0004 ± 0.0006 ) on global temperature change. It may be concluded that aerosol forcing only has a significant effect regionally and that the global impact of aerosol forcing appears to have been overestimated in some previous studies.