Study on soil erosion in Hudan River basin based on TM imagery

Huangyuan county is located in the eastern part of Qinghai province and is the transition zone of Loess Plateau and Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. While the ecological environment in Huangyuan county is fragile and is mainly characterized as serous soil erosion, frequent natural disasters. It is very important to study the soil erosion. Hudan river basin was selected to study the soil erosion in Huangyuan county. The soil erosion information was extracted from Landsat 5 TM data in 1987, 2000 and 2010. To classify and grade soil erosion was according to the classification standard, Classification Standard for Soil Erosion, issued by the Ministry of Water Resources of the People’s Republic of China. The types of soil erosion in the basin were classified as water erosion, freeze-thaw erosion and engineering erosion based on TM imagery, field survey and historical data. Water erosion was the most important part and accounted for more than 90% of the whole area. Weak water erosion increased significantly during the period, mainly distributing in the north of the basin. Slight-degree water erosion increased from 1987 to 2000, while there was a steep reduce during the period from 2000 to 2010. Freeze-thaw erosion distributed mainly in northern areas with high altitude. What Engineering erosion affected were narrow valley areas suitable for human settlements and agricultural production.