An Upscaling Method for Cover-Management Factor and Its Application in the Loess Plateau of China

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health

Wenwu Zhao²  Bojie Fu¹ 

[1] State Key Laboratory of Urban and Regional Ecology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 18 Shuangqing Road, Beijing 100085, China; E-Mail:;State Key Laboratory of Earth Surface Processes and Resource Ecology, College of Resources Science and Technology, Beijing Normal University, 19 Xinjiekou Outer Street, Beijing 100875, China

关键词: cover-management factor;    scale;    soil erosion;    rainfall erosivity;    Universal Soil Loss Equation (USLE);    soil conservation;    C-factors;   

DOI  :  10.3390/ijerph10104752

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

The cover-management factor (C-factor) is important for studying soil erosion. In addition, it is important to use sampling plot data to estimate the regional C-factor when assessing erosion and soil conservation. Here, the loess hill and gully region in Ansai County, China, was studied to determine a method for computing the C-factor. This C-factor is used in the Universal Soil Loss Equation (USLE) at a regional scale. After upscaling the slope-scale computational equation, the C-factor for Ansai County was calculated by using the soil loss ratio, precipitation and land use/cover type. The multi-year mean C-factor for Ansai County was 0.36. The C-factor values were greater in the eastern region of the county than in the western region. In addition, the lowest C-factor values were found in the southern region of the county near its southern border. These spatial differences were consistent with the spatial distribution of the soil loess ratios across areas with different land uses. Additional research is needed to determine the effects of seasonal vegetation growth changes on the C-factor, and the C-factor upscaling uncertainties at a regional scale.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2013 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.