Abstract
The dry valley is a unique geographic phenomenon in Southwest China with severe water erosion. However, little is known regarding its dominant controls and the discrepancies between dry valley subtypes, leading to the poor management of water erosion. To solve these problems, the revised universal soil loss equation (RUSLE) and Geodetector method were used in a dry temperate (DT), dry warm (DW), and dry hot (DH) valley. Results indicated that dry valleys suffer severe water erosion with a value of 64.78, 43.85, and 33.81 t·ha−1·yr−1. The Geodetector method is proven to be an efficient tool to quantify the dominant factor of water erosion. It was established that land use types (LUT) have the closest relationship with water erosion. The controls for water erosion could be better explained by multi-factor interactions analysis, particularly for the combination of slope and LUT in DW (q = 0.71) and DH (q = 0.66). Additionally, regions at high risk of water erosion were characterized by steep slope (>30°) and low vegetation coverage (<50%) in DT, while the opposite is shown in DH. These findings could provide insight for guiding soil erosion management and ecological restoration strategies that balance economic and environmental sustainability.
Highlights
Water erosion caused primarily by anthropogenic disturbances and related land use changes is a critical environmental problem that has substantially influenced ecosystem deterioration, diminished the productivity of cultivated land, and caused detrimental economic impact [1,2]
Hanyuan County, and Yuanmou County, respectively. These results indicate that the dry valley regions were the main “source” zones of soil loss
These differences are negligible when the water erosion rate is converted to soil loss thickness, indicating that the results evaluated using the revised universal soil loss equation (RUSLE) in this study are reliable
Summary
Water erosion caused primarily by anthropogenic disturbances and related land use changes is a critical environmental problem that has substantially influenced ecosystem deterioration, diminished the productivity of cultivated land, and caused detrimental economic impact [1,2]. The global area of water erosion is 11 million km and it can be manifested on various scales from a slowly developing process to a flash flood disaster [3,4,5]. Throughout the world, the fight against water erosion has represented a core and frontier topic and is reflected in numerous global initiatives [6,7]. To assess water erosion correctly and precisely at different spatial and temporal scales, 435 distinct models and model variants have been developed Loss Equation, CSLE; European Soil Erosion Model, EUROSEM), of which the empirical revised universal soil loss equation (RUSLE) model is by far the most widely used [8,9].
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