Land Degeneration due to Water Infiltration and Sub-Erosion: A Case Study of Soil Slope Failure at the National Geological Park of Qian-an Mud Forest, China

Xiangjian Rui, Lei Nie, Yan Xu and Hong Wang
Additional contact information
Xiangjian Rui: Construction Engineering College, Jilin University, Changchun 130026, China
Lei Nie: Construction Engineering College, Jilin University, Changchun 130026, China
Yan Xu: Construction Engineering College, Jilin University, Changchun 130026, China
Hong Wang: Construction Engineering College, Jilin University, Changchun 130026, China

Sustainability, 2019, vol. 11, issue 17, 1-17

Abstract: Sustainable development of the natural landscape has received an increasing attention worldwide. Identifying the causes of land degradation is the primary condition for adopting appropriate methods to preserve degraded landscapes. The National Geological Park of Qian-an mud forest in China is facing widespread land degradation, which not only threatens landscape development but also endangers many households and farmlands. Using the park as a research object, we identified the types of slope failure and the factors that contribute to their occurrence. During June 2017, a detailed field survey conducted in a representative area of the studied region found two main types of slope failure: soil cave piping and vertical collapse. Physicochemical properties of the soil samples were measured in the laboratory. Results show that soil slope failure is controlled by three factors: (1) the typical geological structure of the mud forest area represented by an upper layer of thick loess sub-sandy soil and the near-vertical slope morphology; (2) particular soil properties, especially soil dispersibility; and (3) special climate conditions with distinct wet and dry seasons.

Keywords: landscape; mud forest; land degeneration; water infiltration; sub-erosion; soil slope failure (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/17/4709/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/17/4709/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:11:y:2019:i:17:p:4709-:d:262043

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().