The semi-arid loess hilly-gully region in China has an extremely vulnerable ecological environment. Inappropriate landuse - crop farming, overgrazing, and plantation forestry - has worsened soil erosion, intensified ...
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The semi-arid loess hilly-gully region in China has an extremely vulnerable ecological environment. Inappropriate landuse - crop farming, overgrazing, and plantation forestry - has worsened soil erosion, intensified water shortage, and hence impeded the ecological conservation and agricultural development of the entire region in the past. Optimizing landuse and vegetation cover and spatialpattern is conducive to achieving both ecological and economic goals in terms of controlling soil erosion, using water resources rationally and raising agricultural productivity. Changchuan Watershed, a typical small catchment in the semi-arid loess hilly region, was selected as the case study area to analyze the impacts of landuse and land cover structure and associated spatialpattern on soil erosion and water consumption in the Watershed, through field investigation and model simulation. landusestructure was optimized by multi-objective programming, using remote sensing (RS) and geographical information system (GIS) techniques, analytic hierarchical programming (AHP) and expert consultancy. The digitized optimum spatialpattern embodying rationally-proportioned landusestructure was obtained through GIS-aided redistribution of landuse types. The optimized landusestructure reapportioned woodlands, shrublands, grasslands, and croplands at 3.7%, 38.6%, 49.4%, and 6.3% of the land area respectively, compared to the current landusestructure of 2.4%, 38.6%, 24.0%. and 12.6%, respectively, in the Changchuan Watershed. In the optimized landusespatialpattern, croplands are mainly located in the riverside plain and check-dammed valleys and grasslands are widely distributed in the lower reaches of the basin, while shrublands are appropriately established in the middle and upper reaches of the river. A comparative analysis shows that the optimized landusestructure, with well-designed spatialpattern is able to reduce soil erosion, enhance the utilization of water resources
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