Regional Evaluation of Soil Erosion by Water: A Case Study in the Loess Plateau of China

摘要

This paper shows how recent situation of soil erosion evaluation and prediction on a regional scale based on the techniques of spatial information. The study, which was carried out in central China, identified sediment discharge, precipitation, soil composition, gully density and land use as erosion factors at the regional level. It showed that soil erosion can be assessed and predicted quantitatively at a regional scale; that quantitative evaluation can be used to study and describe the soil erosion mechanism at the macro scale; and that soil erosion at the national or provincial scale can be rapidly surveyed using remote sensing, GIS and erosion modelling.