Loess Plateau Of Northwestern China Research Articles

On the problem of land melioration on the Chinese Loess Plateau

The Loess Plateau in Northwestern China, with 60 million inhabitants, is strongly endangered by heavy erosion quickly decreasing soil fertility and yield of crops, causing also severe problems in the main river of the area, uplifting its bed by strong sedimentation. This situation is mainly due to improper land use, cutting woods, ploughing up grasslands which are the consequence of the decreasing yield of former plough lands. This vicious cycle may only be disrupted by a proper land management based on the newest results of scientific research, on up to date data bases as well as on traditional methods. The land melioration methods must primarily aim at a prevention of further erosion and at an increase of infiltration by different methods, but all means of a proper country planning and development should be harmonised in order of halting of further deterioration of the area.

Soil erosion processes in the loess plateau of Northwestern China

The soil erosion processes in the Loess Plateau may be divided into three types: namely, waterflow erosion; gravitational erosion; wind erosion. The waterflow erosion is most widely distributed and is the main erosion action in the Loess Plateau. The main factors dominating the occurrence and development of the soil erosion in the Loess Plateau are: 1. rainfall; 2. topography; 3. vegetation; 4. soil character. The energy of erosion action depends upon the rainfall and topography, but erodiblity depends upon the vegetation and soil properties. The degree of soil erosion in the Loess Plateau changes with variations of interaction of erosion and anti-erosion measures.