Long-Term Gully Erosion and Its Response to Human Intervention in the Tableland Region of the Chinese Loess Plateau

The gully erosion process is influenced by both natural conditions and human activities on the tableland region, the Chinese Loess Plateau, which is a densely populated agricultural area with unique topography. For the purpose of assessing long-term gully growth rates, the influencing factors and potential of gully growth, KH-4B satellite images, Quickbird-2 images, and unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) images were used to assess gully erosion from 1969 to 2019. The effects of runoff, topography and human activities were analyzed with information derived from historical and present images. Ninety-five investigated gullies were classified into four types: 45 growing, 25 stable, 21 infilled and four excavated gullies. The rates (RA) of 45 growing gullies ranged from 0.50 to 20.94 m2·yr−1, with an average of 5.66 m2·yr−1 from 1969 to 2010. The present drainage area, local slope, average drainage slope, annual runoff, and ratio of the terraced area were all significantly different between the stable and growing gullies. The long-term gully growth rate could be estimated using a nonlinear regression model with annual runoff (Qa) and the slope of the drainage area (Sd) as predictors (RA = 0.301Qa0.562Sd, R2 = 0.530). Based on the Sg-A and Sg-Qa relationship that was used to reveal the threshold conditions for gully growth, all growing gullies still have the potential to keep growing, but soil and water conservation measures, including terraces, could change the threshold condition by reducing the effective drainage area. The results of this study could be helpful for preventing further gully erosion by dealing with gullies far above the threshold line.

[1]  Yan Zhang,et al.  Assessment of bank gully development and vegetation coverage on the Chinese Loess Plateau , 2015 .

[2]  S. Robson,et al.  Optimising UAV topographic surveys processed with structure-from-motion: Ground control quality, quantity and bundle adjustment , 2016 .

[3]  Doerthe Tetzlaff,et al.  Concepts of hydrological connectivity: Research approaches, pathways and future agendas , 2013 .

[4]  Hamid Reza Pourghasemi,et al.  Spatial modelling of gully headcuts using UAV data and four best-first decision classifier ensembles (BFTree, Bag-BFTree, RS-BFTree, and RF-BFTree) , 2019, Geomorphology.

[5]  J. Poesen,et al.  Soil erosion resistance effects on rill and gully initiation points and dimensions , 2009 .

[6]  J. Poesen,et al.  Quantifying long-term changes in gully networks and volumes in dryland environments: The case of Northern Ethiopia , 2013 .

[7]  M. Rossi,et al.  Measuring, modelling and managing gully erosion at large scales: A state of the art , 2021, Earth-Science Reviews.

[8]  Mauro Rossi,et al.  Bias in topographic thresholds for gully heads , 2015, Natural Hazards.

[9]  Shuai Wang,et al.  Responses of soil moisture in different land cover types to rainfall events in a re-vegetation catchment area of the Loess Plateau, China , 2013 .

[10]  Pierre Karrasch,et al.  Measuring gullies by synergetic application of UAV and close range photogrammetry - A case study from Andalusia, Spain , 2015 .

[11]  M. Guo,et al.  Rainfall-triggered mass movements on steep loess slopes and their entrainment and distribution , 2019 .

[12]  Yan Zhang,et al.  A gully erosion assessment model for the Chinese Loess Plateau based on changes in gully length and area , 2017 .

[13]  Xinhua He,et al.  Balancing green and grain trade , 2015 .

[14]  J. Poesen,et al.  How fast do gully headcuts retreat , 2016 .

[15]  E. Rotigliano,et al.  Gully erosion susceptibility assessment by means of GIS-based logistic regression: A case of Sicily (Italy) , 2014 .

[16]  J. Poesen,et al.  Gully and soil and water conservation structure densities in semi‐arid northern Ethiopia over the last 80 years , 2018 .

[17]  Biswajeet Pradhan,et al.  Gully erosion susceptibility mapping using GIS-based multi-criteria decision analysis techniques , 2019, CATENA.

[18]  J. Poesen,et al.  A review of topographic threshold conditions for gully head development in different environments , 2014 .

[19]  J. Poesen,et al.  Gully head retreat rates in the semi-arid highlands of Northern Ethiopia , 2012 .

[20]  Gary A. Peterson,et al.  Soil Attribute Prediction Using Terrain Analysis , 1993 .

[21]  Yan Zhang,et al.  Effect of rainfall gradient and vegetation restoration on gully initiation under a large-scale extreme rainfall event on the hilly Loess Plateau: A case study from the Wuding River basin, China. , 2020, The Science of the total environment.

[22]  S. Foerster,et al.  Indices of sediment connectivity: opportunities, challenges and limitations , 2018, Earth-Science Reviews.

[23]  I. Nicu.  Is digital shoreline analysis system “fit” for gully erosion assessment? , 2021 .

[24]  Qiuwen Chen,et al.  Assessment of land use impact on hydraulic threshold conditions for gully head cut initiation , 2016 .

[25]  C. Stoleriu,et al.  Use of the 3-D scanner in mapping and monitoring the dynamic degradation of soils: case study of the Cucuteni-Baiceni Gully on the Moldavian Plateau (Romania) , 2011 .

[26]  Shengtian Yang,et al.  Monitoring long-term gully erosion and topographic thresholds in the marginal zone of the Chinese Loess Plateau , 2021 .

[27]  J. Poesen,et al.  Controls on the development of continuous gullies: A 60 year monitoring study in the Moldavian Plateau of Romania , 2021, Earth Surface Processes and Landforms.

[28]  Qingyun Duan,et al.  Analysis of precipitation characteristics on the loess plateau between 1965 and 2014, based on high-density gauge observations , 2018, Atmospheric Research.

[29]  A. Zhu,et al.  CN-China: Revised runoff curve number by using rainfall-runoff events data in China. , 2020, Water research.

[30]  Christian Conoscenti,et al.  Assessment of Gully Erosion Susceptibility Using Multivariate Adaptive Regression Splines and Accounting for Terrain Connectivity , 2018 .

[31]  Zhangyan Jiang,et al.  Morphology parameters of ephemeral gully in characteristics hillslopes on the Loess Plateau of China , 2007 .

[32]  T. Svoray,et al.  Catchment scale analysis of the effect of topography, tillage direction and unpaved roads on ephemeral gully incision , 2009 .

[33]  M. Vanmaercke,et al.  Analysis of long-term gully dynamics in different agro-ecology settings , 2019, CATENA.

[34]  P. Podwojewski,et al.  The indirect impact of encroaching trees on gully extension: A 64 year study in a sub-humid grassland of South Africa , 2012 .

[35]  M. Guo,et al.  Impacts of different vegetation restoration options on gully head soil resistance and soil erosion in loess tablelands , 2020, Earth Surface Processes and Landforms.

[36]  M. Conforti,et al.  Geomorphology and GIS analysis for mapping gully erosion susceptibility in the Turbolo stream catchment (Northern Calabria, Italy) , 2011 .

[37]  H. Pourghasemi,et al.  Assessing the performance of GIS- based machine learning models with different accuracy measures for determining susceptibility to gully erosion. , 2019, The Science of the total environment.

[38]  Fethi Bouksila,et al.  Combining field monitoring and aerial imagery to evaluate the role of gully erosion in a Mediterranean catchment (Tunisia) , 2018, CATENA.

[39]  Xie Yun.  Study on Standard of Erosive Rainfall , 2000 .

[40]  K. Fryirs.  (Dis)Connectivity in catchment sediment cascades: a fresh look at the sediment delivery problem , 2013 .

[41]  P. Porto,et al.  Relationships between rainfall characteristics and ephemeral gully erosion in a cultivated catchment in Sicily (Italy) , 2009 .

[42]  Yongqiu Wu,et al.  Monitoring of gully erosion on the Loess Plateau of China using a global positioning system , 2005 .

[43]  L. Gawrysiak,et al.  The impact of permanent gullies on present-day land use and agriculture in loess areas (E. Poland) , 2015 .

[44]  Noemí Lana-Renault,et al.  Effects of farming terraces on hydrological and geomorphological processes. A review , 2015 .

[45]  Irene Marzolff,et al.  Short‐term versus medium‐term monitoring for detecting gully‐erosion variability in a Mediterranean environment , 2011 .

[46]  R. David,et al.  Landscape dissection and drainage area-slope thresholds , 1994 .

[47]  J. Poesen,et al.  Gully erosion: Impacts, factors and control , 2005 .

[48]  S. Robson,et al.  Mitigating systematic error in topographic models derived from UAV and ground‐based image networks , 2014 .

[49]  Baoyuan Liu,et al.  Rill and gully erosion on unpaved roads under heavy rainfall in agricultural watersheds on China’s Loess Plateau , 2019, Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment.

[50]  J. A. Gomez,et al.  A century of gully erosion research: Urgency, complexity and study approaches , 2016 .

[51]  Yiyang Zhao,et al.  Estimation of initiation thresholds and soil loss from gully erosion on unpaved roads on China's Loess Plateau , 2021, Earth Surface Processes and Landforms.

[52]  L. Wen,et al.  Changes in sediment load in a typical watershed in the tableland and gully region of the Loess Plateau, China , 2019, CATENA.