Abstract
Large-scale land consolidation projects (LCPs) have been carried out on the Loess Plateau to increase the area of agriculture land. The newly created land is prone to soil erosion under the effects of water and gravity. Taking a typical high-filling body (HFB) formed by LCPs in Yan’an, China as the subject, this study comprehensively investigated the types and causes of soil erosion with multiple methods of field investigation, on-site monitoring and laboratory tests. Results showed that the HFB presented a composite pattern of soil erosion with multiple types mainly including underground erosion, mixed water-gravity erosion, seepage erosion, and scouring erosion. The type of erosion varied spatially in different parts of the HFB depending on the dominant factors, mainly including the groundwater state, rainfall, runoff, gravity action, topography, and soil erodibility. The underground erosion mainly occurred at the positions with higher groundwater level and larger hydraulic gradient, while scouring erosion mainly occurred at the positions with extensive interactions of surface runoff, channel slope gradient and soil properties. And near the leading edge of the top of the slope, a band of mixed water-gravity erosion occurred owing to the effects of water and gravity. In addition, nearly saturated soils at the toe of HFB displayed groundwater exfiltration and slope-face slumping. Based on our findings on the causes and variation of soil erosion for the HFB, we proposed the following erosion prevention and control measures to protect the LCPs on the Loess Plateau: to construct drainage ditches and blind ditches to form a complete drainage system, plant alfalfa on the top platform to increase rainfall interception and reduce surface runoff, set seepage ditches and plant deep-rooted plants at the toe of the slope to improve slope toe stability, monitor groundwater level and slope deformation to learn the erosion dynamics and slope stability, and optimize the geometry of HFB such as the slope gradient and slope steps to reduce soil erosion.
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Acknowledgments
This study was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 41790443, 41927806, and 32071586), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (Grant Nos. 300102212213), and Young Talent Fund of Association for Science and Technology in Shaanxi, China (Grant No. 20220707). We would like to thank Zhang Keke, Zhai Yong, and Dong Zhenguo of Chang’an University, who helped us install the on-site monitoring system.
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Bao, H., Tang, M., Lan, Hx. et al. Soil erosion and its causes in high-filling body: A case study of a valley area on the Loess Plateau, China. J. Mt. Sci. 20, 182–196 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11629-021-7221-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11629-021-7221-5