New soil erosion monitoring methods and techniques
TANG Jiang, BAO Yu-Hai, HE Xiu-Bin, WEN An-Bang, ZHANG Shen-Bao
1. Key Laboratory of Mountain Environment Evolvement and Regulation, Institute of Mountain Hazards and Environment,Chinese Academy of Sciences,610041, Chengdu; 2. Graduate University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, 100049, Beijing: China
Abstract:Soil erosion monitoring could give quantitative expression on soil erosion assessment and research, as well as guidance on soil and water conservation planning and designing, benefits evaluation, administrative supervision and judgment. The development of soil erosion monitoring has experienced over one century, the technique evolved from traditional runoff plot observation to contemporary multidiscipline method, and the output results were expressed from qualitative description to semi-quantitative and quantitative data. Modern erosion monitoring techniques could enhance the ability of soil erosion monitoring serving for scientific researches and practices : based on landform evolvement caused by soil loss, modern topographic survey could provide high accurate erosion information in various spatial and temporal scales; radionuclide tracing has the advantage of cost-efficient and being easy in practice, and annual mean soil erosion velocity can be calculated ; deposited sediment conversion means that soil erosion in watershed could be assessed from the properties of deposited sediments in ponds or lakes, and could provide useful means for collecting soil erosion history information; based on modern techniques,such as sensor and remote data transmitting, contemporary in-situ observation is a new idea for monitoring erosion and is an important outlet of monitoring technique development, meeting the need of being timely, automated and systematic. New soil erosion monitoring methods and techniques are reviewed with the aim that they be put into wide realization and application.