Impact of Fractional Vegetation Cover Change on Soil Erosion in Miyun Reservoir Basin, China
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Environ Earth Sci (2014) 72:2741–2749 DOI 10.1007/s12665-014-3179-8 ORIGINAL ARTICLE Impact of fractional vegetation cover change on soil erosion in Miyun reservoir basin, China Rui-qing Niu • Bo Du • Yi Wang • Liang-pei Zhang • Tao Chen Received: 9 May 2013 / Accepted: 22 February 2014 / Published online: 12 March 2014 Ó Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2014 Abstract It is well known that soil erosion at the sediment loads may be used to quantitatively separate watershed scale is the result of interactions between vari- biophysical and anthropogenic influences and to identify ous factors. Among these environmental factors, vegetation critical thresholds that might have dramatic consequences is the most important and plays a major role in the soil for the watershed ecosystem. These findings should be erosion process. The impact of fractional vegetation cover quite helpful for sensible watershed development and change (FVCC) on soil erosion in non-contributing areas is management planning. a heavily discussed topic. In this paper, the fractional vegetation cover (FVC) in 2002 and 2005 was calculated Keywords Fractional vegetation cover change analysis Á by using a backpropagation neural network based on Soil erosion Á BP neural network Á Miyun reservoir basin remote sensing (RS) data. Then the impacts of FVCC on sediment loads at the outlets of two Miyun reservoir sub- basins were evaluated by integrating RS and geographic Introduction information system with statistical analysis. The Miyun reservoir basin (MRB) is characterized by hilly and The sediment production at the waterhshed scale is a result mountainous topographies and seasonal rainy weather. The of interactions between various factors (Woodward and primary goal of this paper is to gain a better understanding Foster 1997; Yang and Liang 2004; Chakrapani 2005). of FVCC, its driving forces, and its impact on regional soil Among these environmental factors, vegetation is the most erosion. We discuss spatiotemporal variations in precipi- important due to its role in the soil erosion process (Wei tation and soil erosion, identify which factors contribute to et al. 2002; Cai and Li 1998; Yu et al. 1997; Sun 1989;Li those variations, analyze the influences of FVCC on cli- et al. 1998; Wu and Zhao 2001). Vegetation can minimize mate change and human activities and, finally, conclude kinetic energy by intercepting raindrops with leaves, while that changes in FVC and climate regimes are primary strong root distribution can improve soil structure, enhance factors for soil erosion in MRB. We also discuss how soil infiltration capability, slow runoff velocity, and reduce the sediment transport capacity of surface runoff (Wei et al. 2002). Fractional vegetation cover (FVC) is often used to R. Niu Á Y. Wang Á T. Chen (&) assess the degree of water and soil conservation (Zhang Institute of Geophysics and Geomatics, China University et al. 2002). of Geosciences, Wuhan 430074, China Due to the limitations of observation and the experi- e-mail: [email protected]; [email protected] mental method, research into the relationships between B. Du vegetation and soil erosion is primarily conducted on Computer School, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430079, China runoff plots and at the sample scale (Wu and Zhao 2001). However, at the basin scale, sediment production is a L. Zhang complex process involving interactions between many State Key Lab of Information Engineering in Surveying, Mapping and Remote Sensing, Wuhan University, factors, such as climate, FVC, soil erosion rate, and others. Wuhan 430079, China Previous studies have shown that the fractional vegetation 123 2742 Environ Earth Sci (2014) 72:2741–2749 cover change (FVCC) affects not only sediment sources well as to quantify the relationship between FVCC and and the rate of soil erosion (Woodward and Foster 1997), changes in regional sediment loads over the same years. but also the total amount of sediment produced by soil Ultimately, the goal is to determine the main factors that erosion (Yang and Liang 2004). Moreover, rapid FVCC influence changes in regional sediment loads. will also affect the basin runoff sediment yield. It has been demonstrated that the variation of FVC is the key factor affecting both regional soil erosion and changes in erosion Materials and methods (Syvitski 2003). In addition to the impacts of FVCC and human activities, climate change is another driving force Description of the study area behind changes in basin soil erosion. The Miyun reservoir, on Chaobaihe River, is the main The MRB is located in the northern area of Beijing (Fig. 1) surface source of drinking water for the 14.93 million between 40°190–41°380 N and 115°250–117°350 E, with an inhabitants of Beijing, the capital of China. Water and soil area of about 15,788 km2. The northwestern portion of the losses from agricultural, pastoral, and forestry lands are the study area is gently mountainous, while the southeastern main causes of sediment entering the reservoir. These portion is mainly hilly and partially plain. The elevation processes may impact the safety of the Beijing water varies between 150 and 1,800 m above sea level. supply and the operation and life span of the reservoir The weather conditions in the area reflect typical con- (Zhou and Wu 2005; Sun et al. 2011, 2012; Yao et al. tinental monsoon climate with 488.9 mm average annual 2011). In terms of erosion, the soils are under a serious risk precipitation. Precipitation generally decreases from due to hilly topography, soil conditions facilitating water southeast to northwest and falls primarily between July and erosion (i.e., fine texture, low organic matter, and poor September. The annual average temperatures in the upper plant coverage due to semi-arid climate), and inappropriate and lower watersheds are 9 and 25 °C, respectively. agricultural practices (e.g., excessive soil tillage and cul- In this region, the soil layer is thin. According to the tivation of steep lands). These widespread problems Chinese soil taxonomy (Chinese Soil Taxonomy Research threaten the sustainability of agricultural productivity in the Group 1995), the main soil taxa are mountain meadow soil, Miyun reservoir basin (MRB), where diverse, economi- brown forest soil, and cinnamon soil. The average annual cally important crops are produced. To protect the water soil erosion measured at the reservoir (Chinese River quality, it is necessary to reduce soil erosion and improve Sediment Bulletin 2006) is 12–16 ton/ha and the yearly the environment upstream of Miyun reservoir (Yang et al. quantity transported in bedload is about 5.72 million tons. 2005; Tang et al. 2013). Because of the large areas that The region suffers severe soil erosion and is considered a suffered or are suffering from soil erosion, determining the priority area for soil conservation in China in the twenty- impact of FVCC on soil erosion is very important for first century (Chinese River Sediment Bulletin 2006). improving endangered areas and deciding which types of conservation measures to apply. Satellite data With the development of remote sensing (RS) and geographic information system (GIS) technology, FVC can In total, four scenes of Landsat 5 TM images and four be obtained more conveniently and effectively and its scenes of Landsat 7 ETM? images at a spatial resolution of change can be tracked. At present, satellite image-pro- 30 m were used to estimate the FVC in this study cessing technology has been used in a range of different (Table 1). scales to detect surface FVCC. Through these techniques, researchers can make spatial and temporal comparisons of Sediment loads data biophysical parameters. In recent years, computer simula- tion models have been increasingly used for regional esti- Sediment loads data were obtained from two hydrological mates of soil erosion and sediment transport. stations. Because the hydrological stations are on the In this paper, a backpropagation (BP) neural network is Chaohe River and Baihe River, the MRB was divided into used to map FVC in 2002 and 2005. The results are two sub-basins, the Chaohe sub-basin and the Baihe sub- compared with values measured in the field. The study area basin (Table 2). was also divided into two sub-basins and the mean FVC of The sediment loads data from the Chinese River Sedi- each sub-basin in each year was calculated. The annual ment Bulletin 2002–2005 is shown in Table 3. Because the sediment loads of each sub-basin were obtained from two sediment loads data from each hydrological station are that hydrological stations. By combining these datasets, the of the entire upstream basin, the data were not interpolated, objective of this study is to examine the spatial distribu- the results were used as the annual sediment discharge of tions of FVC in MRB and FVCC during 2002 and 2005, as each sub-basin. 123 Environ Earth Sci (2014) 72:2741–2749 2743 Fig. 1 Location of the study area Table 1 Landsat images used in this study Table 3 Sediment loads measurement in each hydrological station from 2002 to 2005 Image Path/row Date Hydrological station Sediment loads (103 tons) Landsat 5 TM 123–031 2001.10.19 2002 2003 2004 2005 123–032 2000.10.20 124–031 1999.10.28 Xiahui 0 5.8 5.0 27.7 124–032 2000.10.27 Zhangjiafen 1.2 42.8 16.7 1.36 Landsat 7 ETM? 123–031 2005.11.14 123–032 2005.11.14 124–031 2005.11.21 Precipitation data 124–032 2005.11.21 The average annual precipitation data in each sub-basin Table 2 Area and hydrological station of each sub-basin from 2002 and 2005 were obtained from the following procedure. First, rainfall data from eight precipitation sta- Sub-basin River Hydrological Area of sub-basin station (km2) tions in the MRB from 2002 and 2005 were obtained from Hydrology and Water Resources Scientific Data Sharing Chaohe sub- Chaohe Xiahui 6,229.71 Network (http://www.hydrodata.gov.cn).