TY  - JOUR
AU  - Wu, Yiping
AU  - Chen, J.
PY  - 2012//
TI  - Modeling of soil erosion and sediment transport in the East River basin in southern China
JO  - Science of the Total Environment
SP  - 159
EP  - 168
VL  - 441
KW  - area
KW  - assessment
KW  - Bagnold equation
KW  - basin
KW  - China
KW  - comparison
KW  - conservation
KW  - decision support
KW  - degradation
KW  - deposition
KW  - ecological
KW  - erosion
KW  - global
KW  - identification
KW  - journal articles
KW  - land
KW  - land degradation
KW  - land use
KW  - land-use
KW  - management
KW  - management practice
KW  - map
KW  - model
KW  - modeling
KW  - nonpoint source pollution
KW  - performance
KW  - pollution
KW  - prioritization
KW  - processes
KW  - properties
KW  - river
KW  - river basin
KW  - sediment
KW  - sediment transport
KW  - sedimentation
KW  - slope
KW  - soil
KW  - soil erosion
KW  - spatial
KW  - SWAT
KW  - tool
KW  - water
KW  - watershed
KW  - Zhang equation
N2  - Soil erosion is a major global environmental problem that has caused many issues involving land degradation, sedimentation of waterways, ecological degradation, and nonpoint source pollution. Therefore, it is significant to understand the processes of soil erosion and sediment transport along rivers, and this can help identify the erosion prone areas and find potential measures to alleviate the environmental effects. In this study, we investigated soil erosion and identified the most seriously eroded areas in the East River Basin in southern China using a physically-based model, Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT). We also introduced a classical sediment transport method (Zhang) into SWAT and compared it with the built-in Bagnold method in simulating sediment transport process along the river. The derived spatial soil erosion map and land use based erosion levels can explicitly illustrate the identification and prioritization of the critical soil erosion areas in this basin. Our results also indicate that erosion is quite sensitive to soil properties and slope. Comparison of Bagnold and Zhang methods shows that the latter can give an overall better performance especially in tracking the peak and low sediment concentrations along the river. We also found that the East River is mainly characterized by sediment deposition in most of the segments and at most times of a year. Overall, the results presented in this paper can provide decision support for watershed managers about where the best management practices (conservation measures) can be implemented effectively and at low cost. The methods we used in this study can also be of interest in sediment modeling for other basins worldwide.
SN  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2012.09.057
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2012.09.057
N1  - exported from refbase (http://eros.usgs.gov/refbase/show.php?record=25658), last updated on Mon, 04 Mar 2013 08:32:45 -0600
ID  - Wu+Chen2012
ER  -