Spatiotemporal variation in rainfall erosivity on the Chinese Loess Plateau during the period 1956–2008

Abstract

Water resources and soil erosion are the most important environmental concerns on the Chinese Loess Plateau, where soil erosion and sediment yield are closely related to rainfall erosivity. Daily rainfall data from 60 meteorological stations were used to investigate the spatiotemporal variations in annual rainfall, annual erosive rainfall and annual rainfall erosivity on the Chinese Loess Plateau during the period 1956–2008. The annual rainfall, erosive rainfall and rainfall erosivity decreased over the past five decades, as determined by the Mann–Kendall test. A comparison of the annual averaged rainfall, erosive rainfall and rainfall erosivity from 1980 to 2008 with that from 1956 to 1979 revealed a remarkable spatial difference in the rainfall trends on the Loess Plateau. Regions of the plateau with major decreases in rainfall were primarily in the Hekouzhen-Longmen section of the middle Yellow River, especially in the Wuding River basin, the Fenhe basin and the northern-central Shanxi province, where the annual rainfall and erosive rainfall decreased by more than 10% and the annual rainfall erosivity decreased by more than 15%. The rainfall erosivity also decreased more than the annual rainfall. Because the annual rainfall has decreased significantly on the Chinese Loess Plateau over the past 50 years, it is important to better understand the ecological and hydrological processes affected by this climate change.