scholarly journals Identification of Dominant Factors Affecting Soil Erosion and Water Yield within Ecological Red Line Areas

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 399 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jiangbo Gao ◽  
Yuan Jiang ◽  
Huan Wang ◽  
Liyuan Zuo

Soil conservation and water retention are important metrics for designating key ecological functional areas and ecological red line (ERL) areas. However, research on the quantitative identification of dominant environmental factors in different ecological red line areas remains relatively inadequate, which is unfavorable for the zone-based management of ecological functional areas. This paper presents a case study of Beijing’s ERL areas. In order to objectively reflect the ecological characteristics of ERL areas in Beijing, which is mainly dominated by mountainous areas, the application of remote sensing data at a high resolution is important for the improvement of model calculation and spatial heterogeneity. Based on multi-source remote sensing data, meteorological and soil observations as well as soil erosion and water yield were calculated using the revised universal soil loss equation (RUSLE) and integrated valuation of ecosystem services and tradeoffs (InVEST) model. Combining the influencing factors, including slope, precipitation, land use type, vegetation coverage, geomorphological type, and elevation, a quantitative attribution analysis was performed on soil erosion and water yield in Beijing’s ERL areas using the geographical detector. The power of each influencing factor and their interaction factors in explaining the spatial distribution of soil erosion or water yield varied significantly among different ERL areas. Vegetation coverage was the dominant factor affecting soil erosion in Beijing’s ERL areas, explaining greater than 30% of its spatial heterogeneity. Land use type could explain the spatial heterogeneity of water yield more than 60%. In addition, the combination of vegetation coverage and slope was found to significantly enhance the spatial distribution of soil erosion (>55% in various ERL areas). The superposition of land use type and slope explained greater than 70% of the spatial distribution for water yield in ERL areas. The geographical detector results indicated that the high soil erosion risk areas and high water yield areas varied significantly among different ERL areas. Thus, in efforts to enhance ERL protection, focus should be placed on the spatial heterogeneity of soil erosion and water yield in different ERL areas.

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jiangbo Gao ◽  
Yuan Jiang

<p>Soil conservation and water retention are important metrics for designating key ecological functional areas. However, research on the quantitative identification of dominant environmental factors in different ecological functional areas remains relatively inadequate, which is unfavorable for zone-based management of key ecological functional areas. This paper presents a case study of Beijing’s key ecological functional areas. In order to objectively reflect the ecological characteristics of key ecological functional areas in Beijing which is mainly dominated by mountainous areas, the application of remote sensing data about high resolution is important for the improvement of model calculation and spatial heterogeneity. Based on multi-source remote sensing data, meteorological and soil observations, soil erosion and water yield were calculated using the Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE) and Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services and Tradeoffs (InVEST) model. Combining the influencing factors, including slope, precipitation, land use type, vegetation coverage, geomorphological type and elevation, a quantitative attribution analysis was performed on soil erosion and water yield in Beijing’s key ecological functional areas using the geographical detector. The power of each influencing factor and their interaction factors in explaining the spatial distribution of soil erosion or water yield varied significantly among different key ecological function areas. Vegetation coverage was the dominant factor affecting soil erosion in Beijing’s key ecological function areas, explaining greater than 30% of its spatial heterogeneity. Land use type can explain the spatial heterogeneity of water yield more than 60%. In addition, the combination of vegetation coverage and slope was found to significantly enhance the spatial distribution of soil erosion (>55% in various key ecological functional areas). The superposition of land use type and slope explained greater than 70% of the spatial distribution for water yield in key ecological functional areas. The geographical detector results indicated that the high soil erosion risk areas and high water yield areas varied significantly among different ecological functional areas. Thus, in efforts to enhance key ecological functional areas protection, focus should be placed on the spatial heterogeneity of soil erosion and water yield in different ecological functional areas.</p>


Author(s):  
Lin Chu ◽  
Tiancheng Sun ◽  
Tianwei Wang ◽  
Zhaoxia Li ◽  
Chongfa Cai

As the most typical ecologically fragile area in South China, the Three Gorges Reservoir Area (TGRA) suffers from water and soil loss, which has threatened the local ecological environment. Understanding the spatial heterogeneity of soil erosion and exploring its determinants are of great significance in preventing soil erosion and maintaining ecological sustainability in the TGRA. This study investigates the spatial heterogeneity of soil erosion and quantitatively identifies the determinants in the TGRA based on the Chinese Soil Loss Equation (CSLE) and geographical detector method. This study concluded that the soil erosion status generally improved from 1990 to 2015, showing an increasing trend from 1990 to 2000 and a decreasing trend from 2000 to 2010. Slope, land use, and vegetation coverage were the dominant individual factors affecting soil erosion in the TGRA. For the interaction factor, the combinations of land-use type and slope and vegetation coverage and slope were the key determinants, explaining 68.7% and 63.1% of the spatial heterogeneity of soil erosion in the TGRA from 1990 to 2015, respectively. Moderate and higher levels of soil erosion occurred in areas where the slope was greater than 25°. Among the land-use types, dry land and bare land were prone to soil erosion. These findings reveal that land-use type and vegetation coverage should be considered for the effective prevention of soil erosion, and cultivation on sloped farmland should be prohibited, especially on slopes higher than 25° in the TGRA.


Agronomy ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (7) ◽  
pp. 1438
Author(s):  
Snežana Jakšić ◽  
Jordana Ninkov ◽  
Stanko Milić ◽  
Jovica Vasin ◽  
Milorad Živanov ◽  
...  

Spatial distribution of soil organic carbon (SOC) is the result of a combination of various factors related to both the natural environment and anthropogenic activities. The aim of this study was to examine (i) the state of SOC in topsoil and subsoil of vineyards compared to the nearest forest, (ii) the influence of soil management on SOC, (iii) the variation in SOC content with topographic position, (iv) the intensity of soil erosion in order to estimate the leaching of SOC from upper to lower topographic positions, and (v) the significance of SOC for the reduction of soil’s susceptibility to compaction. The study area was the vineyard region of Niš, which represents a medium-sized vineyard region in Serbia. About 32% of the total land area is affected, to some degree, by soil erosion. However, according to the mean annual soil loss rate, the total area is classified as having tolerable erosion risk. Land use was shown to be an important factor that controls SOC content. The vineyards contained less SOC than forest land. The SOC content was affected by topographic position. The interactive effect of topographic position and land use on SOC was significant. The SOC of forest land was significantly higher at the upper position than at the middle and lower positions. Spatial distribution of organic carbon in vineyards was not influenced by altitude, but occurred as a consequence of different soil management practices. The deep tillage at 60–80 cm, along with application of organic amendments, showed the potential to preserve SOC in the subsoil and prevent carbon loss from the surface layer. Penetrometric resistance values indicated optimum soil compaction in the surface layer of the soil, while low permeability was observed in deeper layers. Increases in SOC content reduce soil compaction and thus the risk of erosion and landslides. Knowledge of soil carbon distribution as a function of topographic position, land use and soil management is important for sustainable production and climate change mitigation.


2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (15) ◽  
pp. 4160 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qin Liu ◽  
Tiange Shi

Ecological vulnerability assessment increases the knowledge of ecological status and contributes to formulating local plans of sustainable development. A methodology based on remote sensing data and spatial principal component analysis was introduced to discuss ecological vulnerability in the Toutun River Basin (TRB). Exploratory spatial data analysis and a geo-detector were employed to evaluate the spatial and temporal distribution characteristics of ecological vulnerability and detect the driving factors. Four results were presented: (1) During 2003 and 2017, the average values of humidity, greenness, and heat in TRB increased by 49.71%, 11.63%, and 6.51% respectively, and the average values of dryness decreased by 165.24%. However, the extreme differences in greenness, dryness, and heat tended to be obvious. (2) The study area was mainly dominated by a high and extreme vulnerability grade, and the ecological vulnerability grades showed the distribution pattern that the northern desert area was more vulnerable than the central artificial oasis, and the central artificial oasis was more vulnerable than the southern mountainous area. (3) Ecological vulnerability in TRB showed significant spatial autocorrelation characteristics, and the trend was enhanced. The spatial distribution of hot/cold spots presented the characteristics of “hot spot—cold spot—secondary hot spot—cold spot” from north to south. (4) The explanatory power of each factor of ecological vulnerability was temperature (0.5955) > land use (0.5701) > precipitation (0.5289) > elevation (0.4879) > slope (0.3660) > administrative division (0.1541). The interactions of any two factors showed a non-linear strengthening effect, among which, land use type ∩ elevation (0.7899), land use type ∩ precipitation (0.7867), and land use type ∩ temperature (0.7791) were the significant interaction for ecological vulnerability. Overall, remote sensing data contribute to realizing a quick and objective evaluation of ecological vulnerability and provide valuable information for decision making concerning ecology management and region development.


2018 ◽  
Vol 2018 ◽  
pp. 1-20 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiaoqing Shi ◽  
Tianling Qin ◽  
Denghua Yan ◽  
Ruochen Sun ◽  
Shuang Cao ◽  
...  

This study analysed the temporal and spatial changes in the water yield coefficient (WYC), which represents the ratio of the gross amount of water resources to precipitation. Factors such as precipitation, rainstorm days, rainless days, vegetation cover change, and land use/cover change were considered to determine the causes of these changes. The results led to the following conclusions: (1) The average annual WYC of the Huang-Huai-Hai River Basin is between 0.03 and 0.58, with an average value of 0.17, which is smaller than the national average WYC of 0.4. (2) Temporally, the WYC varied slightly, with the western part showing a negative trend and the eastern part showing a positive trend. The WYC is positively correlated with precipitation, rainstorm days, and the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) and negatively correlated with rainless days. However, a slower change in NDVI produced a faster change in WYC. In areas with land use types exhibiting a large evapotranspiration decrease, the rate of change in the WYC increased. (3) Spatially, the distribution is fairly regular, exhibiting a gradual increase from the northern part of the Yellow River Basin (WYC < 0.1) to the surrounding areas. When the WYC is correlated with precipitation, rainstorm days, rainless days, and NDVI, the R2 values of the linear fitting results are 0.98, 0.91, 0.96, and 0.73, respectively. The WYC is positively correlated with precipitation, rainstorm days, and vegetation coverage and negatively correlated with rainless days, but the correlation coefficient is greatly influenced by the precipitation characteristics and land use types. In areas featuring high proportions of land use types associated with high evapotranspiration, the average WYC is low.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chengzhong Pan ◽  
Lan Ma

&lt;p&gt;The aim of this study was to investigate how the spatial distribution of grass influenced run-off and erosion from a hillslope with loess and cinnamon soils in the rocky area of Northern China. We set up a trial to test the two soils with different treatments, including bare soil (BS), grass strips on the upper (UGS) and lower (DGS) parts of the slope, grass cover over the entire slope (GS), and a grass carpet on the lower part of the slope (GC), under simulated rainfall conditions. The results showed that the run-off coefficients for the loess and cinnamon soils decreased by between 4% and 20% and by between 2% and 37%, respectively, when covered with grass. Grass spatial distribution had little effect on the run-off, but more effect on erosion than vegetation coverage degree. The most effective location of grass cover for decreasing hillslope erosion was at the foot, and the high efficiency was mainly due to controlling of rill formation and sediment deposition. The soil loss from GS, DGS, and GC on the loess and cinnamon soils was between 77% and 93% less and 55% and 80% less, respectively, compared with the loss from BS. However, the soil characteristics had little effect on soil erosion for well-vegetated slopes. The results highlight the importance of vegetation re-establishment at the foot of hillslope in controlling soil erosion.&lt;/p&gt;


Biologia ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 64 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sumbangan Baja ◽  
Muhamad Ramli ◽  
Syamsul Lias

AbstractSoil erosion by water is considered as one of the most significant forms of land degradation that affects sustained productivity of agricultural land use and water quality. It is influenced by a considerable number of factors (including climate, soil, topography, land use and types of land management), so that the information on the spatial distribution of soil erosion rate and its related effects can be effectively employed as a baseline data for land use development and water protection. The principal aim of this study is three-fold: (i) to map existing land use; (ii) to assess and map the spatial distribution of average annual rate of soil losses in the study area; (iii) to evaluate spatial matching between existing and proposed land use including a distance analysis from the water body (the Bili-Bili Dam). An analytical procedures used, respectively, include supervised classification of satellite imagery, application of RUSLE (Revised USLE), and overlay analysis in a raster GIS environment, utilising available information in the region covering some parts of Jeneberang catchment, South Sulawesi, Indonesia. The results suggest that the outputs of this study can be used for the identification of land units on a cell-basis with different land use types, rate of soil loss, inconsistency between proposed and planned land use, as well as the threat of land degradation to the main river and the dam. The analytical procedures developed in this research may be useful in other areas, particularly in the studies related to the assessment and mapping of land use and erosion for the importance of sustainable land use at a relatively large area.


PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (12) ◽  
pp. e0261842
Author(s):  
Jianyong Xiao ◽  
Binggeng Xie ◽  
Kaichun Zhou ◽  
Shana Shi ◽  
Junhan Li ◽  
...  

Soil loss caused by erosion is a global problem. Therefore, the assessment of soil erosion and the its driving mechanism are of great significance to soil conservation. However, soil erosion is affected by both climate change and human activities, which have not been quantified, and few researchers studied the differences in the driving mechanisms of soil erosion depending on the land use type. Therefore, the spatiotemporal characteristics and changing trends of soil erosion in the Dongting Lake Basin were analyzed in this study. Geographic detectors were used to identify the dominant factors affecting soil erosion in different land use types. In this study, a sensitivity experiment was conducted to clarify the relative contributions of climate change and human activities to soil erosion changes. In addition, we studied the effects of different land use types and vegetation cover restoration on soil erosion. The results show that soil erosion in the Dongting Lake Basin decreased from 2000 to 2018. Human activities represented by land use types and vegetation coverage significantly contributed to the alleviation of soil erosion in the Dongting Lake Basin, whereas climate change represented by rainfall slightly aggravated soil erosion in the study area. The restoration of grassland vegetation and transfer of cultivated land to woodlands in the study area improved the soil erosion. The slope steepness is the key factor affecting the intensity of soil erosion in dry land, paddy fields, and unused land, whereas the vegetation coverage is the key factor affecting the intensity of soil erosion in woodland, garden land, and grassland. Detailed spatiotemporally mapping of soil erosion was used to determine the connections between soil erosion and potential drivers, which have important implications for vegetation restoration and the optimization of land use planning.


2008 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 253-260 ◽  
Author(s):  
. Sunarti ◽  
Naik Sinukaban ◽  
Bunasor Sanim ◽  
Suria Darma Tarigan

Forest conversion to some land use happened in all watershed, includes Batang Pelepat watershed. The objectives of this research are to know effect of forest conversion to land of rubber (Hevea brasiliensis) and palm oil (Elaeis guinensis Jack) farming on run off and soil erosion and different of erosion rate on agro technology of rubber and palm oil farming in Batang Pelepat watershed. The research was carried out during 3 months, begin October to December 2006. Run off and soil erosion measured plot with gutter in the lower of plot. Experimental design for this research is randomized complete block design, with land use type as treatment and slope class as replication or block. Data analyzed statistically by variance analysis (F-test) and Duncan New Multiple Range Test on confidence 95% (α = 0.05). The results of this research show that area of forest coverage in Batang Pelepat watershed was decreasing. In 1986 this area still 94,50% of watershed area, but in 1994 area of forest only 78,17% and in 2006 forest area 64,20% of watershed area. Forest conversion was carried out to land of rubber and palm oil farming with some actual agro technologies. Land of monoculture rubber I resulted the highest run off and soil erosion more than the other land use type and showed different of run off and soil erosion on land of secondary forest. 


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wende Chen ◽  
kun zhu ◽  
QUN WU ◽  
Yankun CAI ◽  
Yutian LU ◽  
...  

Abstract Taking Chengdu as the research object, the natural eco-environmental factors such as topography, climate, vegetation, land use and vegetation cover were selected, together with human disturbance factors such as traffic and GDP, and the index weights were calculated by AHP. Based on 3S technology, projection transformation, remote sensing interpretation, information extraction and analysis are carried out, and evaluation model of Chengdu's residential environment adaptability is constructed, which reflects the zoning and spatial distribution characteristics of Chengdu's residential environment adaptability. The results show that: 1) The adaptability index of Chengdu's human settlement environment is between 15.98 and 76.75, and the suitability of human settlement environment is gradually decreasing from the middle to the east and west of Chengdu, and most areas are restricted by human production activities and natural conditions. 2) According to the actual situation, the suitability index can be divided into High-grade suitable areas (284.36 km2, 2.01%), relatively High-grade suitable areas (1802.13 km2, 12.71%), moderately suitable areas (3721.49 km2, 26.24%) and low suitable areas (3731.49 km2, 26.31%). 3) The correlation degree between the spatial distribution of Chengdu population and each index factor is as follows: per capita GDP> topographic relief > temperature and humidity > vegetation coverage > traffic network density > land use > hydrological factors. 4) There is a good correlation between Chengdu human settlements suitability index and the current population density grid layer, and its correlation coefficient is 0.7326. 5) The leading impact indicators of human settlements in different regions are different. The results show that the natural environment conditions in Chengdu are superior and the ecological environment quality is relatively stable, but the human settlement suitability index in the southeast and Longmenshan areas of Chengdu is relatively low. Therefore, in the future development planning of Chengdu, it is necessary to combine the actual environmental conditions and resource carrying capacity, and rationally carry out urban optimization and beautiful countryside construction.


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