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| Titel |
A comparison between soil loss evaluation index and the C-factor of RUSLE: a case study in the Loess Plateau of China |
| VerfasserIn |
W. W. Zhao, B. J. Fu, L. D. Chen |
| Medientyp |
Artikel
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| Sprache |
Englisch
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| ISSN |
1027-5606
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| Digitales Dokument |
URL |
| Erschienen |
In: Hydrology and Earth System Sciences ; 16, no. 8 ; Nr. 16, no. 8 (2012-08-16), S.2739-2748 |
| Datensatznummer |
250013424
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| Publikation (Nr.) |
 copernicus.org/hess-16-2739-2012.pdf |
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| Zusammenfassung |
| Land use and land cover are most important in quantifying soil erosion.
Based on the C-factor of the popular soil erosion model, Revised Universal
Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE) and a scale-pattern-process theory in landscape
ecology, we proposed a multi-scale soil loss evaluation index (SL) to evaluate
the effects of land use patterns on soil erosion. We examined the advantages
and shortcomings of SL for small watershed (SLsw) by comparing to the
C-factor used in RUSLE. We used the Yanhe watershed located on
China's Loess Plateau as a case study to demonstrate the utilities of
SLsw. The SLsw calculation involves the delineations of the drainage
network and sub-watershed boundaries, the calculations of soil loss
horizontal distance index, the soil loss vertical distance index, slope
steepness, rainfall-runoff erosivity, soil erodibility, and cover and
management practice. We used several extensions within the geographic
information system (GIS), and AVSWAT2000 hydrological model to derive all
the required GIS layers. We compared the SLsw with the C-factor to
identify spatial patterns to understand the causes for the differences. The
SLsw values for the Yanhe watershed are in the range of 0.15 to 0.45, and
there are 593 sub-watersheds with SLsw values that are lower than the
C-factor values (LOW) and 227 sub-watersheds with SLsw values higher than
the C-factor values (HIGH). The HIGH area have greater rainfall-runoff
erosivity than LOW area for all land use types. The cultivated land is
located on the steeper slope or is closer to the drainage network in the
horizontal direction in HIGH area in comparison to LOW area. The results
imply that SLsw can be used to identify the effect of land use
distribution on soil loss, whereas the C-factor has less power to do it.
Both HIGH and LOW areas have similar soil erodibility values for all land
use types. The average vertical distances of forest land and sparse forest
land to the drainage network are shorter in LOW area than that in HIGH area.
Other land use types have shorter average vertical distances in HIGH area
than that LOW area. SLsw has advantages over C-factor in its ability to
specify the subwatersheds that require the land use patterns optimization by
adjusting the locations of land uses to minimize soil loss. |
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