Abstract：As a major process of soil erosion, gully erosion destroys land resources and is the main contribution to watershed sediment on the gully Loess Plateau. The complex mechanism of gully erosion and lack of techniques resulted in the slow progress of research on gully erosion. Measuring and monitoring techniques are the base for assessment and prediction of gully erosion rate. In the past years, some new techniques have been used in the research of gully erosion, including Global Positioning System (GPS), three-dimensional Laser measurement and high resolution remote sensing. In particular, high resolution remote sensing presents a possibility for monitoring gully erosion in a larger scale than before. Worldwide researches showed that gully erosion rate ranged from 0.16m/a to 15m/a. The technique of gully erosion prediction develops slowly, and there is still no widely applicable gully erosion prediction model at present. Assessment of gully erosion rates with high-resolution sensing, LADAR or 3D laser measuring is a hot topic in the research of gully erosion recently and also a constant trend in the near future; however, development of gully erosion model and predicting gully erosion at different scales will be the long term research direction.
2012, Vol. 10 
