Temporal Spatial Mutations of Soil Erosion in the Middle and Lower Reaches of the Lancang River Basin and Its Influencing Mechanisms

Jinkun Wu, Yao Cheng, Zheng Mu, Wei Dong, Yunpu Zheng, Chenchen Chen and Yuchun Wang
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Jinkun Wu: Hebei Key Laboratory of Intelligent Water Conservancy, Hebei University of Engineering, Handan 056038, China
Yao Cheng: School of Water Conservancy and Hydroelectric Power, Hebei University of Engineering, Handan 056038, China
Zheng Mu: Hebei Key Laboratory of Intelligent Water Conservancy, Hebei University of Engineering, Handan 056038, China
Wei Dong: Hebei Key Laboratory of Intelligent Water Conservancy, Hebei University of Engineering, Handan 056038, China
Yunpu Zheng: Hebei Key Laboratory of Intelligent Water Conservancy, Hebei University of Engineering, Handan 056038, China
Chenchen Chen: PowerChina Eco-Environmental Group Co., Ltd., Shenzhen 518102, China
Yuchun Wang: State Key Laboratory of Simulation and Regulation of Water Cycle in River Basin, China Institute of Water Resources and Hydropower Research, Beijing 100038, China

Sustainability, 2022, vol. 14, issue 9, 1-19

Abstract: As a major threat to ecosystem functions and national food security, soil erosion also exerts an influence on the water quality in basins and the operation and maintenance of hydropower plants. Existing discussions about trends of soil erosion focus mainly on its variation and mutation over time. Few studies have addressed the spatial mutation of soil erosion and its influence mechanism. In this research, Sen’s slope estimation was coupled with a Mann–Kendall model to explore the spatiotemporal distribution, spatial mutation characteristics and influence mechanisms of soil erosion, and conduct a case study on the Middle and Lower reaches of the Lancang River Basin (ML-LRB) in China. There are three main conclusions from this study: (1) During 2000–2019, the annual soil erosion in the ML-LRB variation ranged from 0 to 7.00 × 10 3 t/(km 2 ·a) with a multi-year mean of 1.53 × 10 3 t/(km 2 ·a), decreasing year by year from north to south, while an increasing trend began to appear in the central above region after 2015. (2) The areas with decreased soil erosion were much larger than those with increased soil erosion during 2000–2019, and there was a concentrated increase in soil erosion in Dali and in Xishuangbanna. (3) The mutation of the soil erosion intensity was spatially consistent with that of the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI). Overall, this paper provides a new perspective for the study of factors affecting the trends and spatial mutation of soil erosion.

Keywords: Lancang River Basin; soil erosion; Mann–Kendall; Sen’s slope; mutation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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