Abstract
Controlling soil erosion is beneficial to the conservation of soil resources and ecological restoration. Understanding the spatial distribution characteristics of soil erosion helps find the key areas for soil control projects and optimal scale for investing in a soil and water conservation project at the lowest cost. This study aims to answer the question of how the spatial distribution of soil erosion in Hubei Province changed between 2000 and 2020. Moreover, how do the effects of natural factors and human activities on soil erosion vary over the years? What are the differences in landscape pattern characteristics and the spatial cluster of soil erosion at multiple administrative scales? We simulated the spatial distribution of soil erosion in Hubei province from 2000 to 2020 by the Chinese Soil Loss Equation model at three administrative scales. We investigated the relationship between soil erosion and driving factors by Geodector. We explored the landscape pattern and hotspots of land at different levels of soil erosion by Fragstat and hotspot analysis. The results show that: (1) The average soil erosion rate decreased from 2000 to 2020. Soil erosion is severe in the mountainous areas of western Hubei province, while it is less severe in the central plains. (2) Land-cover type, precipitation, and normalized difference vegetation index are the most influencing factors of soil erosion in 2000–2010, 2015, and 2020, respectively. (3) The aggregation index values at the town scale are higher than those at the city and county scales, while the fractal dimension index values at the town scale are lower, which indicates that soil erosion projects are most efficient when the project unit is ‘town’. (4) At the town scale, if the hotspot area (6.84% of the total area) is treated as the protection target, it can reduce 50.42% of the total soil erosion of Hubei province. Hotspots of soil erosion overlap with high erosion zones, mainly in the northwestern, northeastern, and southwestern parts of Hubei province in 2000, while the hotspots in northwestern Hubei disappear in 2020. In conclusion, land managers in Hubei should optimize the land-use structure, soil and water conservation in slope land, and eco-engineering controls at the town scale.
Highlights
This article is an open access articleSoil erosion is one of the biggest ecological problems in the world, as it leads to water pollution, reduced land productivity and water storage capacity, and deterioration of the ecological environment, which threatens human survival [1]
In contrast to previous studies, this study innovatively examines the effect of soil erosion characteristics based on different administrative scales and identifies effective control types and regions by integrating landscape patterns and hotspot analyses to propose effective soil erosion control suggestions in regional landscape planning
The results show that soil erosion fluctuated in Hubei over the study years
Summary
This article is an open access article. Soil erosion is one of the biggest ecological problems in the world, as it leads to water pollution, reduced land productivity and water storage capacity, and deterioration of the ecological environment, which threatens human survival [1]. According to the National Soil and Water Conservation Plan (2015–2030) approved by the State Council of. The funds will be allocated to those areas where soil erosion is severe and clustered, distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons.
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