TY - JOUR
T1 - The measurement of wind erosion through field survey and remote sensing
T2 - a case study of the Mu Us Desert, China
AU - Yue, Yaojie
AU - Shi, Peijun
AU - Zou, Xueyong
AU - Ye, Xinyue
AU - Zhu, A. xing
AU - Wang, Jing ai
N1 - Funding Information:
This research is financially supported by the National Basic Research Program of China (973 Program) (No. 2012CB955403), NSF project (No. 41321001). We would like to thank Joseph A. Mason for his valuable suggestions for improving the study. Sincere thanks should also be given to the editor and four anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments and suggestions that greatly helped to improve the quality of this article.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2015, Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht.
PY - 2015/4
Y1 - 2015/4
N2 - The measurement of wind erosion is not only important to understand wind erosion itself, but also an important scientific step in efforts to reverse the process of desertification. This study develops a model that predicts sand transport flux at pixel level based on the quantitative relationship between remotely sensed vegetation coverage and observed sand transport rate data. The data were collected from field surveys in the sandy area of Yuyang County, which is located in the Mu Us Desert. The study found that the sand transport flux was 9,643 kilograms per meter annually (kga−1 m−1) for a mobile dune, 6,394 kga−1 m−1 for a semi-mobile dune, 2,634.5 kga−1 m−1 for bare cultivated land, and 127.7 kga−1 m−1 for a semi-fixed dune. Using the sand flux derived by our model, the wind erosion modulus in the Yuyang sandy area was found to be 1,673.18 tons per square kilometer annually [ta−1 (km2)−1] in 1986, 1,568.10 in 1996, and 1,685.04 in 2005. Mean vegetation coverage in the sandy area of Yuyang in 1986, 1996, and 2005 was 42.39, 48.07, and 48.03 %, respectively, indicating that overall, vegetation coverage increased in the region, while decreasing in some areas, and that the vegetation coverage incensement failed to reduce the quantity of regional wind erosion. This sand flux retrieval method has the potential for successful application in other, similar areas.
AB - The measurement of wind erosion is not only important to understand wind erosion itself, but also an important scientific step in efforts to reverse the process of desertification. This study develops a model that predicts sand transport flux at pixel level based on the quantitative relationship between remotely sensed vegetation coverage and observed sand transport rate data. The data were collected from field surveys in the sandy area of Yuyang County, which is located in the Mu Us Desert. The study found that the sand transport flux was 9,643 kilograms per meter annually (kga−1 m−1) for a mobile dune, 6,394 kga−1 m−1 for a semi-mobile dune, 2,634.5 kga−1 m−1 for bare cultivated land, and 127.7 kga−1 m−1 for a semi-fixed dune. Using the sand flux derived by our model, the wind erosion modulus in the Yuyang sandy area was found to be 1,673.18 tons per square kilometer annually [ta−1 (km2)−1] in 1986, 1,568.10 in 1996, and 1,685.04 in 2005. Mean vegetation coverage in the sandy area of Yuyang in 1986, 1996, and 2005 was 42.39, 48.07, and 48.03 %, respectively, indicating that overall, vegetation coverage increased in the region, while decreasing in some areas, and that the vegetation coverage incensement failed to reduce the quantity of regional wind erosion. This sand flux retrieval method has the potential for successful application in other, similar areas.
KW - Field survey
KW - Mu Us Desert
KW - Quantitative retrieval model
KW - Remote sensing
KW - Wind erosion
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U2 - 10.1007/s11069-014-1516-6
DO - 10.1007/s11069-014-1516-6
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84925487424
SN - 0921-030X
VL - 76
SP - 1497
EP - 1514
JO - Natural Hazards
JF - Natural Hazards
IS - 3
ER -