Sensitivity Analysis of Soil Erosion in the Northern Loess Plateau

Soil erosion is one of the most serious ecological and environmental problems in the northern Loess Plateau. The purposes of this research are to assess the spatial difference and explore the spatial pattern of soil erosion sensitivity in the northern Loess Plateau. Based on the universal soil loss equation (USLE), four natural factors (i.e., rainfall, soil texture, slope, and vegetation cover) and two human activity factors (i.e., population density and GDP) in 2000 and 2007 were calculated in spatial scale by ArcMap for assessment. The results showed that the sensitivity of soil erosion reduced significantly from 2000 to 2007. It indicated that regional anti-soil erosion force increased from 2000 to 2007. The sensitivity of soil erosion in the southeast region was higher than the northwest region. The areas with high and extreme sensitivity were mainly distributed in the hills and mountains of the northern Loess Plateau. The extreme sensitivity was mainly caused by the frequent regional human activities and the unscientific farming. The spatial patterns of soil erosion and its sensitivity shows similar features, namely, severe and extreme soil erosion regions were also the areas with high and extreme erosion sensitivity. (C) 2010 Published by Elsevier Ltd.