Abstract
The semiarid loess area in north Shaanxi Province is one of the most serious areas of water erosion in China. The Chinese government initiated the project “Grain-for-Green” for soil erosion control in 1999, with significant effect. Vegetation, rainfall, soil, and topography are the most dominant natural factors affecting soil erosion; therefore, the aim of this research was to investigate the effects of these four factors on runoff and soil loss at the runoff-plot scale over five years and use the Gray relational analysis methods to compare the impacts of these factors. Five runoff-measuring sites were established in five different vegetation types. The results show that the relative impacts of the four factors on runoff were: rainfall > soil > topography > vegetation, and the relative impacts of the factors on sediment yield were soil > runoff > rainfall > topography > vegetation. We also analyzed the weights of these four factors on runoff and sediment yield during the wettest year alone. For that year, the relative weights of the factors on runoff were topography > rainfall > soil > vegetation, and the relative weights of the factors on sediment yield were runoff > soil > rainfall > topography > vegetation.
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