Journal Article

Scale effects of eroded sediment transport in Wujiang River Basin, Guizhou Province, China

WANG Yao HOU Li-sheng CAI Yun-long

2017

Overview

In recent years, research on spatial scale and scale transformation of eroded sediment transport has become a forefront field in current soil erosion research, but there are very few studies on the scale effect problem in Karst regions of China. Here we quantitatively extracted five main factors influencing soil erosion, namely rainfall erosivity, soil erodibility, vegetative cover and management, soil and water conservation, and slope length and steepness. Regression relations were built between these factors and also the sediment transport modulus and drainage area, so as to initially analyze and discuss scale effects on sediment transport in the Wujiang River Basin （WRB）. The size and extent of soil erosion influencing factors in the WRB were gauged from： Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer Global Digital Elevation Model （ASTER GDEM）, precipitation data, land use, soil type and Normalized Difference Vegetation Index （NDVI） data from Global Inventory Modeling and Mapping Studies （GIMMS） or Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer （AVHRR）, and observed data from hydrometric stations. We find that scaling effects exist between the sediment transport modulus and the drainage area. Scaling effects are expressed after logarithmic transformation by a quadratic function regression relationship where the sediment transport modulus increases before decreasing, alongside changes in the drainage area. Among the five factors influencing soil erosion, slope length and steepness increases first and then decreases, alongside changes in the drainage area, and are the main factors determining the relationship between sediment transport modulus and drainage area. To eliminate the influence of scale effects on our results, we mapped the sediment yield modulus of the entire WRB, adopting a 1 000 km2 standard area with a smaller fitting error for all sub-basins, and using the common Kriging interpolation method.