Assessment of Soil Erosion and Sediment Yield in Liao Watershed, Jiangxi Province, China, Using USLE, GIS, and RS

Soil erosion by water is a serious problem all over the world. In China, about 1 790 000 km2 of land suffers from water erosion, which accounts for 18.3% of China's total area. This study was conducted in the Liao (潦) watershed in Jiangxi (江西) Province to assess annual soil erosion and sediment yiel...

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Published inJournal of earth science (Wuhan, China) Vol. 21; no. 6; pp. 941 - 953
Main Author 李辉 陈晓玲 Kyoung Jae Lim 蔡晓斌 Myung Sagong
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published China University of Geosciences China University of Geosciences 01.12.2010
Springer Nature B.V
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ISSN1674-487X
1867-111X
DOI10.1007/s12583-010-0147-4

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Summary:Soil erosion by water is a serious problem all over the world. In China, about 1 790 000 km2 of land suffers from water erosion, which accounts for 18.3% of China's total area. This study was conducted in the Liao (潦) watershed in Jiangxi (江西) Province to assess annual soil erosion and sediment yield using the Universal Soil Loss Equation (USLE). A geographic information system (GIS) was used to generate maps of the USLE factors, which include rainfall erosivity (R), soil erodibility (K),slope length and steepness (LS), cover (C), and conservation practice (P) factors. By integrating these factors in a GIS, a spatial distribution of soil erosion over the Liao watershed was obtained. The soil erosion was found to vary from nil for flat and well-covered areas to more than 500 t/ha/a in mountainous places with sparse vegetation. The average soil erosion is 18.2 t/ha/a with a standard deviation of 109.3 t/ha/a. The spatial distribution of erosion classes was estimated. About 39.5% of the watershed is under the tolerant erosion rate, and 60.5% of the study area experienced erosion to different extents. A spatially distributed sediment delivery ratio (SDR) module was developed to account for soil erosion and deposition. It was found that the SDR value at the outlet of the Liao watershed was 0.206, and the sediment yield was 1.32 million t/a, which was 20% higher than the measured sediment. The results can be used to identify the soil erosion hot spots and develop the best soil erosion management practices and help estimate the quantity of soil that was transported into the downstream Poyang (鄱阳) Lake.
Bibliography:42-1788/P
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soil erosion, USLE, GIS, sediment delivery ratio.
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ISSN:1674-487X
1867-111X
DOI:10.1007/s12583-010-0147-4