## 1 Introduction  
Lakes, beyond their aesthetic appeal, are crucial in supporting human livelihoods, economic activities, and ecosystem services [1]. They are not just bodies of water; they are essential and distinct strategic assets for maintaining ecological balance, preserving biodiversity, and impacting the global carbon cycle [2; 3]. Lakes serve a multitude of essential roles, including erosion mitigation, safeguarding coastlines, preventing floods, regulating water levels, preserving biodiversity, supporting wildlife, enhancing water quality, mitigating climate change, and providing opportunities for ecotourism and recreation [2; 4]. Understanding and preserving the ecological health of lakes is not just a scientific endeavor; it is a responsibility we all share. Lake Van is the largest lake with a high concentration of salt and soda and one of the world's endorheic lakes. Soda lakes, like Lake Van, are considered severe habitats due to their high alkalinity, confined basin origins, and frequent exposure to high evaporation rates [5]. Until 2018, the sole fish species identified in the brackish water of Van Lake was _Alburnustarichi_, often known as _Pearl mullet_. This Cyprinid fish, belonging to the same family, is typically collected when the spring floods occur [6]. In 2018, scientists identified a previously unknown species of fish named _Oxynoemacheilus crisisanus_ within a microbialite [5]. However, there is a recorded presence of 103 different types of phytoplankton in the lake, including _Brown algae_, _Diatoms_, _Flagellates_, _Green algae_, and _Cyanobacteria_. The lake has been documented to contain 36 zooplankton species, including _Rotation_, _Cladocera_, and _Copepoda_. Considering all these features, determining the boundaries of Lake Van or determining the lake water surface area is very important in terms of protecting the lake habitat. However, no study has been found in the literature regarding the water surface area of Lake Van or the determination of lake boundaries. Remote sensing (RS) is a crucial method for collecting data in various vital fields, such as urban planning, risk assessment, and mitigation of natural calamities, ecosystem resilience [7], and global climate change [8]. RS approaches are characterized by their superior efficiency, lower cost, and faster speed than alternative methods [9; 10; 11; 12; 13]. At the same time, Landsat images are widely used in remote sensing; these Landsat satellites have provided essential data for over 50 years, enabling users to utilize remote sensing technologies to accurately identify water surfaces [14; 15; 16; 17]. GEE offers users access to a wide range of freely accessible, public, multi-temporal remote sensing data. GEE offers a scalable and cloud-based platform for retrieving and processing geospatial data. GEE, with its supply of planetary-scale free geographic big data, effectively addresses the challenges of data availability, data storage, and data preprocessing. It also offers no-cost computer resources, enabling researchers and practitioners to perform computationally intensive geospatial big data analysis even with limited local computing and storage capabilities [18]. Researchers across all disciplines can now develop comprehensive insights at different scales (local, national, regional, continental, and global) thanks to the geospatial big data and computational capabilities provided by GEE [19]. There are many studies in the literature where lake area boundaries can be determined successfully with the GEE platform [1; 20; 21; 22]. RS images, GEE, and spectral water body extraction indices such as Automated Water Extraction Index (AWEI), Modified Normalized Difference Water Index (NDWI), and Normalized Difference Water Index (NDWI) are commonly used to accurately determine the surface areas of bodies of water and observe lakes. Green and near-infrared (NIR) bands are used to determine the properties of water and calculate the NDWI [23].