Sciences in Cold and Arid Regions ›› 2016, Vol. 8 ›› Issue (4): 325-333.doi: 10.3724/SP.J.1226.2016.00325

• ARTICLES • Previous Articles    

Remote-sensing data reveals the response of soil erosion intensity to land use change in Loess Plateau,China

JiaLi Xie1, ChangZhen Yan1, ZhiXiang Lu2, Sen Li1   

  1. 1. Key Laboratory of Desert and Desertification, Cold and Arid Regions Environmental and Engineering Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou, Gansu 730000, China;
    2. Key Laboratory of Ecohydrology of Inland River Basin, Cold and Arid Regions Environmental and Engineering Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou, Gansu 730000, China
  • Received:2016-02-27 Revised:2016-06-29 Published:2018-11-23
  • Contact: JiaLi Xie, Cold and Arid Regions Environmental and Engineering Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences. No. 320, West Donggang Road, Lanzhou, Gansu 730000, China. E-mail:xiejl@lzb.ac.cn E-mail:xiejl@lzb.ac.cn
  • Supported by:
    This work was supported by the Key Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (KZZD-EW-04-04) and the Chinese Science Academy STS Program:Construction of information platform of field and remote sensing data in northwestern China (KFJ-EW-STS-006).

Abstract: Developing an effective approach to rapidly assess the effects of restoration projects on soil erosion intensity and their extensive spatial and temporal dynamics is important for regional ecosystem management and the development of soil conservation strategies in the future. This study applied a model that was developed at the pixel scale using water soil erosion indicators (land use, vegetation coverage and slope) to assess the soil erosion intensity in the Loess Plateau, China. Landsat TM/ETM+ images in 2000, 2005 and 2010 were used to produce land use maps based on the object-oriented classification method. The MODIS product MOD13Q1 was adopted to derive the vegetation coverage maps. The slope gradient maps were calculated based on data from the digital elevation model. The area of water soil-eroded land was classified into six grades by integrating slope gradients, land use and vegetation coverage. Results show that the Grain-To-Green Project in the Loess Plateau worked based on the land use changes from 2000 to 2010 and enhanced vegetation restoration and ecological conservation. These projects effectively prevented soil erosion. During this period, lands with moderate, severe, more severe and extremely severe soil erosion intensities significantly decreased and changed into less severe levels, respectively. Lands with slight and light soil erosion intensities increased. However, the total soil-eroded area in the Loess Plateau was reduced. The contributions of the seven provinces to the total soil-eroded area in the Loess Plateau and the composition of the soil erosion intensity level in each province are different. Lands with severe, more severe and extremely severe soil erosion intensities are mainly distributed in Qinghai, Ningxia, Gansu and Inner Mongolia. These areas, although relatively small, must be prioritised and preferentially treated.

Key words: remote sensing, soil erosion intensity, land use, Loess Plateau

Arnold JG, Srinivasan R, Muttiah RS, et al., 1998. Large area hydrologic modeling and assessment, part I:Model develop-ment. Journal of the American Water Resources Association, 34:73-89.
Cao S, 2008. Historical evaluation of relationship between nature and society:Historical changes of the ecological policy and environment in China's loess plateau. Agricultural Archaeology, 1:21-28. (in Chinese)
Chen WH, Liu LY, Zhao C, et al., 2005. The fast method of soil erosion investigation based on remote sensing. Research of Soil and Water Conservation, 12:8-10. (in Chinese)
Fan JR, Zhang JH, Zhong XH, et al., 2004. Monitoring of soil erosion and assessment for contribution of sediments to rivers in a typical watershed of the upper Yangtze River basin. Land Degradation & Development, 15:411-421.
Flanagan D, Laflen J, 1997. The USDA water erosion prediction project (WEPP). Eurasian Soil Science, 30:524-530.
Foley JA, Defries RA, Gregory P, et al., 2005. Global consequences of land use science. Science, 309:570-574.
Fu BJ, Zhao WW, Chen LD, et al., 2005. Assessment of soil erosion at large watershed scale using RUSLE and GIS:a case study in the Loess Plateau of China. Land Degradation & Development, 16:73-85.
Fu BJ, Liu Y, Lü YH, et al., 2011. Assessing the soil erosion control service of ecosystems change in the Loess Plateau of China. Ecological Complexity, 8:284-293.
Fu BJ, Wang YF, Lu YH, et al., 2009. The effects of landuse com-binations on soil erosion:a case study in the Loess Plateau of China. Progress in Physical Geography, 33:793-804.
Hu Y, Tian G, Mayer AL, et al., 2015. Risk assessment of soil erosion by application of remote sensing and GIS in Yanshan Reservoir catchment, China. Natural Hazards, 79:277-289.
Kassouk Z, Thouret JC, Gupta A, et al., 2014. Object-oriented classification of a high-spatial resolution SPOT5 image for mapping geology and landforms of active volcanoes:Semeru case study. Indonesia Geomorphology, 221:18-33.
Khoi DN, Suetsugi T, 2012. The responses of hydrological pro-cesses and sediment yield to land-use and climate change in the Be River Catchment, Vietnam. Hydrological Processes, 28(3):640-652.
Lal R, 2001. Soil degradation by erosion. Land Degradation & Development, 12:519-539. DOI:10.1002/ldr.472
Lal R, Bruce J, 1999. The potential of world cropland soils to sequester C and mitigate the greenhouse effect. Environmental Science & Policy, 2:177-185.
Lambin EF, Turner BL, Geist HJ, et al., 2001. The causes of land-use and land-cover change:moving beyond the myths. Global Environmental Change, 11:261-269.
Li YK, Ni J, Yang QK, et al., 2006. Human impacts on soil erosion identified using land-use changes:a case study from the Loess Plateau, China. Physical Geography, 27:109-126.
Li Z, Liu WZ, Zhang XC, et al., 2009. Impacts of land use change and climate variability on hydrology in an agricultural catch-ment on the Loess Plateau of China. Journal of Hydrology, 377:35-42. DOI:http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2009.08.007.
Li N, Yan CZ, Xie JL, 2015. Remote sensing monitoring recent rapid increase of coal mining activity of an important energy base in northern China:a case study of Mu Us Sandy Land. Resources, Conservation and Recycling, 94:129-135.
Liu C, Qi S, Shi M, 2001. Process of study on relationship between land use change and soil erosion. Journal of Soil and Water Conservation, 15:10-13. (in Chinese)
Liu DS, 1964. Loess in the Middle Yellow River Drainage Basin. Beijing:Science Press. (in Chinese)
Lu ZX, Zou SB, Qin ZD, et al., 2015. Hydrologic responses to land use change in the Loess Plateau:case study in the upper Fenhe River Watershed. Advances in Meteorology, 3:1-10. DOI:10.1155/2015/676030.
Ludwig JA, Wilcox BP, Breshears DD, et al., 2005. Vegetation patches and runoff-erosion as interacting ecohydrological processes in semiarid landscapes. Ecology, 86:288-297.
Renard KG, Freimund JR, 1994. Using monthly precipitation data to estimate the R-factor in the revised USLE. Journal of Hy-drology, 157:287-306.
Shi C, Zhou Y, Fan X, et al., 2013. A study on the annual runoff change and its relationship with water and soil conservation practices and climate change in the middle Yellow River basin. Catena, 100:31-41.
Sun W, Shao Q, Liu J, et al., 2014. Assessing the effects of land use and topography on soil erosion on the Loess Plateau in China. Catena, 121:151-163.
The Ministry of Water Resources of the People's Republic of China, 2008. National Professional Standards for Classification and Gradation of Soil Erosion:SL190-2007. (in Chinese)
Tian YC, Zhou YM, Wu BF, et al., 2009. Risk assessment of water soil erosion in upper basin of Miyun Reservoir, Beijing, China. Environmental Geology, 57:937-942.
Vrieling A, 2006. Satellite remote sensing for water erosion as-sessment:A review. Catena, 65:2-18.
Wang XD, Zhong XH, Fan JR, 2005. Spatial on the distribution of soil erosion sensitivity on the Tibet Plateau. Pedosphere, 15:465-472.
Williams J, 1985. Physical components of the EPIC model Soil Erosion and Conservation. Soil Conservation Society of America, Ankeny, Iowa, pp. 272-284.
Wischmeier WH, Smith DD, 1965. Predicting Rainfall-erosion Losses from Cropland East of the Rocky Mountains-guide for Selection of Practices for Soil and Water Conservation. US Department of Agriculture, Washington, D.C..
Yang ZL, 2003. A summary on the history and research progress of ecological construction in the Loess Plateau. World Forest Re-search, 16:36-40.
Yu HY, Cheng G, Ge XS, et al., 2011. Object oriented land cover classification using ALS and GeoEye imagery over mining area. Transactions of Nonferrous Metals Society of China, 21:733-737.
Zhang L, Bai KZ, Wang MJ, et al., 2016. Basin-scale spatial soil erosion variability:Pingshuo opencast mine site in Shanxi Province, Loess Plateau of China. Natural Hazards, 80:1213-1230.
Zhang QF, Wu FQ, Wang L, et al., 2011. Application of PCA inte-grated with CA and GIS in eco-economic regionalization of Chinese Loess Plateau. Ecological Economics, 70:1051-1056.
Zhao XL, Zhang ZX, Liu B, et al., 2002. Method of monitoring soil erosion dynamic based on remote sensing and GIS. Bulletin of Soil and Water Conservation, 22:29-32. (in Chinese)
Zheng FL, 2006. Effect of vegetation changes on soil erosion on the Loess Plateau. Pedosphere, 16:420-427.
Zhou ZC, Shang-Guan ZP, Zhao D, 2006. Modeling vegetation coverage and soil erosion in the Loess Plateau Area of China. Ecological Modeling, 198:263-268.
[1] Yong Chen,Tao Wang,LiHua Zhou,Rui Wang. Industrialization model of enterprises participating in ecological management and suggestions: A case study of the Hobq Model in Inner Mongolia [J]. Sciences in Cold and Arid Regions, 2018, 10(4): 286-292.
[2] ShaoYang Liu, NingKe Hu, Jin Zhang, ZhiChao Lv. Spatiotemporal change of carbon storage in the Loess Plateau of northern Shaanxi, based on the InVEST Model [J]. Sciences in Cold and Arid Regions, 2018, 10(3): 240-250.
[3] YuQiang Li, JianPeng Zhang, XueYong Zhao, TongHui Zhang, YuLin Li, XinPing Liu, YinPing Chen. Comparison of soil physico-chemical properties under different land-use and cover types in northeastern China's Horqin Sandy Land [J]. Sciences in Cold and Arid Regions, 2016, 8(6): 495-506.
Viewed
Full text


Abstract

Cited

  Shared   
  Discussed   
No Suggested Reading articles found!