DEM-based research on the terrain driving force of soil erosion in the Loess Plateau

Abstract

DEM data availability and GIS-assisted processing of the data have extended the usage of DEM to a great extent. Taking 5 m grid resolution DEMs of 48 test areas in the Loess Plateau in north Shaanxi as test data, this paper introduces the definition, calculation, extraction and stable threshold area of terrain driving force ( T d ) for soil erosion. Then, spatial distribution of T d is investigated with a method of geostatistics analysis. Results show that spatial distribution of T d is correlatable with spatial distribution of the soil erosion intensity and T d can be taken as a regional terrain factor of regional soil erosion in the Loess Plateau. But T d is not exact enough in evaluation processing of regional soil erosion, an integrated analysis combining the climate, vegetation cover, soil and water conservation management is demanded. Then, some problems existing in the research of regional soil erosion are analyzed and a preliminary model of regional soil erosion contained T d is proposed. Subsequent research is focused on data collection and integration of regional soil erosion and its applicability in the Loess Plateau.