›› 2011, Vol. 28 ›› Issue (4): 586-591.

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Study on Distribution of Ephemeral Gullies in Semiarid Loess Area

ZHAO Wei-jun, XU Zhi-chao, ZHANG Yan, ZHU Yan, ZHU Qing-ke   

  1. Key Laboratory of Soil and Water Conservation & Desertification Combat, Beijing Forestry University, Ministry of Education, Beijing 100083, China
  • Received:2010-05-19 Revised:2011-01-19 Online:2011-08-25 Published:2011-09-06

Abstract: Ephemeral gully (EG) erosion is one of the important ways of soil erosion in semiarid loess area. Extraction of ephemeral gullies from small watersheds was based on the SPOT image of Wuqi County in 2004, and the correlations between land use, slope and distribution of ephemeral gullies above shoulder line of valleys were analyzed based on the investigated date of land use in 35 small watersheds in Wuqi County, north Shaanxi Province. The results reveal that the EG density was in an order of hilly dry land < woodland < grassland; the EG density is significantly different from different land use types. Correlation analysis reveals that there was a positive correlation between the average slope and EG density in the same land use types, and ephemeral gullies are mainly distributed in a slope range from 25° to 35°. The study results can be referred in regenerating the ecology and conserving water and soil.

Key words: density of ephemeral gully, slope, land use, soil erosion, Loess hilly-gully region, Wuqi County, north Shaanxi Province

CLC Number: 

  • S157.1