Abstract
The spatial pattern of soil erosion can provide valuable insights into the soil erosion processes that require a rapid assessment in practical applications. Generally, quantitative technique is expensive and time-consuming. The objective of this paper is to reveal the spatial pattern of erosion with a rapid assessment method. The affecting factors such as land cover, vegetation fraction and slope gradient are integrated into this method using a qualitative means. Beijing-1 images in 2006 were used to produce land-cover and vegetation fraction, and 1:50,000 topographic maps were used to calculate slope gradient. The study area was classified into six grades. Results show that the upstream area of Guanting Reservoir, in general, is exposed to a moderate risk; there are 17,740.33 km2 of land that suffered from water soil erosion in 2006, occupied 40.69% of the total area, and most of the soil erosion area is on the light and moderate risk, which occupied 25.05 and 62.83% of the eroded area, respectively. Eight elevation zones and six slope gradient zones were overlaid with the assessed risk. The analyzed results show that: (1) the areas above 2,000 m have the lowest erosion risk, which is only 0.75% of the eroded area; 1,250–1,500 m elevation zone has the highest erosion risk, which is 34.72% of the eroded area. (2) The slope gradient zone less than 5 degrees and greater than 35 degrees have the lowest erosion risk, which is 0.02 and 0.75% of the eroded area, respectively; the slope gradient zone with 8–15 degrees has the highest erosion risk, which is 36.40% of the eroded area. These results will be useful for water and soil conservation management and the planning of mitigation measures.
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Acknowledgments
The authors acknowledge financial support from the Knowledge Innovation Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (Grant No. KZCX1-YW-08-03) and The Second Program of Water and Soil Conservation Remote Sensing Monitoring in the Upper Basin of Guanting Reservoir and Miyun Reservoir supported by Haihe River Water Conservancy Committee, The Ministry of Water Resources, People’s Republic of China (Grant No. HW-STBC2004-03). The authors especially thank the anonymous reviewers, whose constructive comments greatly improved the quality of the manuscript and Mr. Geoff Hart for his detailed edits of the manuscript.
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Zhang, X.W., Wu, B.F., Li, X.S. et al. Soil erosion risk and its spatial pattern in upstream area of Guanting reservoir. Environ Earth Sci 65, 221–229 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12665-011-1085-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12665-011-1085-x