Abstract
This paper discussed the spatial distribution of soil erosion in China at the end of the 20th century based on the second national soil erosion survey. The result indicated soil erosion is still the prime environmental problem in China. Soil erosion mainly occurs in the western regions of China, and the slight erosion type, ion the whole, exerts the greatest impact on soil erosion pattern. The distribution of water erosion shows the impact of landforms: slight water erosion mainly in mountainous and hilly areas, and half of violent water erosion on the loess landforms. Farmland, forestland and grassland are the major land use types of slight hydraulic erosion distribution, while the serious hydraulic erosion and slight wind erosion mainly occur on grassland. Thus, the conservation of the grassland is the key to either hydraulic and wind erosion control. The huangmian soil (a major type of cultivated soil developed from loess mother material) is the one facing the most serious threat from soil erosion in Chinas soil resources. Further discussion on the soil erosion distribution still needs more research on the method and relevant data analysis.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
An Zhisheng, Fu Congbin, 2001. The progress in global change sciences.Advance in Earth Sciences, 16(5): 671–680. (in Chinese)
Brazier R E, Rowan J S, Anthony S Get al., 2001. “MIRSED” towards a MIR to modeling hillslope soil erosion at the national scale.Catena, 2001, 42(1): 59–79.
Chen Youqi, Peter H Verburg, 2000. Multi-scale spatial characterization of land use/land cover in China.Scientia Geographica Sinica, 20(3): 197–202. (in Chinese)
Hu Liangjun, Li Rui, Yang Qinke, 2001. Region-scale water erosion assessment based on GIS.Acta Pedologica Sinica, 38(2): 167–175. (in Chinese)
MWR, 1997. Professional Standard of the PRC: Standard for Classification and Gradation of Soil Erosion. Beijing: China Water Conservancy Press, 2–16. (in Chinese)
Tan Qulin, Shao Yun, 2000. Application of remote sensing technology to environmental pollution monitoring.Remote Sensing Technology and Application, 15(4): 247–254. (in Chinese)
Zhang Zengxiang, Zhao Xiaoli, Chen Xiaofeng et al., 1998. Numerical analysis of soil erosion in mountain area using remote sensing and GIS.Transactions of the CSAE, 14(3): 77–83. (in Chinese)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Feng, X., Suoyan, G. & Zengxiang, Z. Soil erosion in China based on the 2000 national remote sensing survey. J. Geogr. Sci. 12, 435–442 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02844601
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02844601