A study on estimation of the amount of soil erosion in small watershed based on GIS: a case study in the Three Gorge Area of China

Yaolin Liu; Zhijun Luo

doi:10.1117/12.651840

2 December 2005 A study on estimation of the amount of soil erosion in small watershed based on GIS: a case study in the Three Gorge Area of China

Yaolin Liu, Zhijun Luo

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 6045, MIPPR 2005: Geospatial Information, Data Mining, and Applications; 60452Z (2005) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.651840
Event: MIPPR 2005 SAR and Multispectral Image Processing, 2005, Wuhan, China

Abstract

Soil erosion is a serious environmental and production problem in the Three Gorge Areas (TGA) of China. To decrease the risk on environmental impacts, there is an increasing demand for sound, and readily applicable techniques for soil conservation planning in this area. The objectives of the study were to develop and validate a soil erosion-predicting model based on the revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE) in a geographic information systems (GIS) environment. The use of GIS to develop conservation-oriented watershed management strategies in the Taipingxi watershed is presented. Data used for the RUSLE were either determined or taken from published literature pertaining to the Taipingxi watershed. The study showed that the serious eroded area (sediment is higher than 50 t/ha) is 10.62%, but contributes 61.55% sediments of all watershed, while no or slightly eroded area (sediment is lower than 10t/ha) is 62.18%, only contributes 3.49% sediments in the watershed. In the watershed, the annual average soil loss rate from relatively flat agricultural land was approximately 21 t/ha, whereas 48 t/ha was found on the cultivated sloping lands, which constitutes a large proportion of soil loss. The results of the study imply the capability of the RUSLE in the GIS environment to predict soil loss quantitatively and spatially. And they also indicate that the RUSLE-GIS model is a useful tool for resource management and soil conservation planning. This technology is readily transferable and accessible to other land managers and agronomists in the TGA.

Citation Download Citation

Yaolin Liu and Zhijun Luo "A study on estimation of the amount of soil erosion in small watershed based on GIS: a case study in the Three Gorge Area of China", Proc. SPIE 6045, MIPPR 2005: Geospatial Information, Data Mining, and Applications, 60452Z (2 December 2005); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.651840

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