Evaluating the Scale Effect of Soil Erosion Using Landscape Pattern Metrics and Information Entropy: A Case Study in the Danjiangkou Reservoir Area, China

Qiuping Huang, Jiejun Huang, Xining Yang, Lemeng Ren, Cong Tang and Lixue Zhao
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Qiuping Huang: Department of Regional Planning and Management, School of Resource and Environmental Engineering, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan 430070, China
Jiejun Huang: Department of Regional Planning and Management, School of Resource and Environmental Engineering, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan 430070, China
Xining Yang: Department of Geography and Geology and Institute for Geospatial Research and Education, Eastern Michigan University, Ypsilanti, MI 48197, USA
Lemeng Ren: Department of Regional Planning and Management, School of Resource and Environmental Engineering, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan 430070, China
Cong Tang: Department of Regional Planning and Management, School of Resource and Environmental Engineering, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan 430070, China
Lixue Zhao: Department of Regional Planning and Management, School of Resource and Environmental Engineering, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan 430070, China

Sustainability, 2017, vol. 9, issue 7, 1-15

Abstract: The regular patterns of soil erosion tend to change at different scales of observation, affecting the mechanism of soil erosion and its evolution characteristics. This phenomenon has essential scientific significance for the rational allocation of land resources and for studies on sustainable ecosystems. As an important agricultural area in China, Danjiangkou reservoir is threatened by severe soil erosion. In this study, we selected four kinds of landscape pattern metrics, including patch density, fractal dimension, Shannon diversity index, and connectivity, to analyze soil erosion intensity in the Danjiangkou reservoir area at different scales based on landscape ecological principles. In addition, we determine the optimum research scale of the experimental area by calculating the information entropy value of soil patches at different scales. The findings suggest that: (1) the landscape pattern of soil erosion in the experimental area is obviously scale-dependent, and the responses to scale differ from index to index; (2) as the scale of observation increases, the fragmentation of soil patches is weakened, the stability of different landscape components is enhanced, and the soil becomes less vulnerable to erosion; and (3) based on information entropy theory, 60 m is confirmed to be the optimum scale of this study.

Keywords: soil erosion; scale effect; landscape pattern metrics; information entropy; sustainable ecosystem; Danjiangkou reservoir area (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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