Assessment and spatial heterogeneity of soil erosion sensitivity in the Xin'anjiang river basin, Anhui Province
Zhang Naifu, Liu Xia, Zhu Jipeng, Zhang Guangcan, Zhang Ronghua,Yang Shaoyang, Wang Jing
1. Shandong Provincial Key Laboratory of Soil Erosion and Ecological Restoration, Department of Soil and Water Conservation, Shandong Agricultural University, 271018, Tai'an, Shandong, China;
2. College of Forestry, Nanjing Forestry University, 210037, Nanjing, China;
3. Anhui Provincial Monitoring Center Station of Soil and Water Conservation, 230000, Hefei, China
Abstract：The Xin'anjiang river basin in Anhui Province as a national key prevention and control area of soil and water loss, as well as a key protection area of drinking water in China, plays an important role in regional ecological security. Based on the universal soil loss equation (USLE) and in accordance with the Interim Regulations of Ecological Function Zoning, the influence of rainfall, soil, topography and vegetation on soil erosion sensitivity was explored in the Xin'anjiang river basin. On basis of the above-mentioned data, we applied the factors appraisal method to assess soil erosion sensitivity and spatial heterogeneity. Results showed that: 1) In the Xin'anjiang river basin, the soil erosion sensitivity can be divided into five levels, i. e. insensitive, slightly sensitive, moderately sensitive, strongly sensitive and extremely sensitive. Slightly sensitive area is the largest, accounting for 47.77% of the total area, followed by moderately sensitive area, 32.92%; strongly and extremely sensitive areas are much smaller, only 5.39% together. 2) In terms of spatial distribution, the sensitivity increases from the plains to the low mountains, and the highly sensitive areas are mainly in large undulating hills and low mountains, such as northern Huizhou district, southwestern Xiuning County, eastern and northwestern She County, and eastern Jixi County. 3) The distribution of soil erosion sensitivity is consistent with that of the soil erosion situation. The highly sensitive regions always suffer serious soil erosion in majority of the sample areas, except in some areas such as eastern She County and southern Xiuning County where some differences exist due to the impact of human factors.
2014, Vol. 12 
