Changes in Land Use and Soil Erosion in the Loess Plateau Driven by the Grain for Green Program: A Case Study of Jingyuan, Ningxia

To evaluate soil erosion changes driven by the Grain for Green Program in the Loess Plateau, the study analyzes the spatiotemporal changes in the land use and vegetation coverage in Jingyuan County from 2000 to 2016 based on land use and normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) data.The findings reveal the following.(1)The farmland and grassland areas decreased, while forestland area increased and became the dominant land-use type in Jingyuan after the program's implementation.The conversions of grassland and farmland to forestland were the main types of land-use change, and occurred predominantly in areas with slopes of 8°~15° and 15°~25°.The proportion of farmland decreased with the increase in the slope gradient, whereas the conversion of forestland presented a contrary variation.(2)The vegetation coverage of forestland and grassland increased between 2000 and 2016; particularly, areas with vegetation coverage of more than 75% increased by 77%, and the largest changes occurred in areas with slopes of 15°~25°.(3)The soil erosion area decreased by 47% after the implementation of the program, and the amount of soil erosion decreased by 1.1964 million tons, 61% of which was due to the decrease of soil erosion in forestland and grassland. © 2020, The Editorial Board of Journal of Basic Science and Engineering. All right reserved.