Gully feature mapping is an indispensable prerequisite for the motioning and control of gully erosion which is a widespread natural hazard. The increasing availability of high-resolution Digital Elevation Model(DEM) a...Gully feature mapping is an indispensable prerequisite for the motioning and control of gully erosion which is a widespread natural hazard. The increasing availability of high-resolution Digital Elevation Model(DEM) and remote sensing imagery, combined with developed object-based methods enables automatic gully feature mapping. But still few studies have specifically focused on gully feature mapping on different scales. In this study, an object-based approach to two-level gully feature mapping, including gully-affected areas and bank gullies, was developed and tested on 1-m DEM and Worldview-3 imagery of a catchment in the Chinese Loess Plateau. The methodology includes a sequence of data preparation, image segmentation, metric calculation, and random forest based classification. The results of the two-level mapping were based on a random forest model after investigating the effects of feature selection and class-imbalance problem. Results show that the segmentation strategy adopted in this paper which considers the topographic information and optimal parameter combination can improve the segmentation results. The distribution of the gully-affected area is closely related to topographic information, however, the spectral features are more dominant for bank gully mapping. The highest overall accuracy of the gully-affected area mapping was 93.06% with four topographic features. The highest overall accuracy of bank gully mapping is 78.5% when all features are adopted. The proposed approach is a creditable option for hierarchical mapping of gully feature information, which is suitable for the application in hily Loess Plateau region.展开更多
Soil depth generally varies in mountainous regions in rather complex ways.Conventional soil survey methods for evaluating the soil depth in mountainous and hilly regions require a lot of time,effort and consequently r...Soil depth generally varies in mountainous regions in rather complex ways.Conventional soil survey methods for evaluating the soil depth in mountainous and hilly regions require a lot of time,effort and consequently relatively large budget to perform.This study was conducted to explore the relationships between soil depth and topographic attributes in a hilly region in western Iran.For this,one hundred sampling points were selected using randomly stratified methodology,and considering all geomorphic surfaces including summit,shoulder,backslope,footslope and toeslope;and soil depth was actually measured.Eleven primary and secondary topographic attributes were derived from the digital elevation model(DEM) at the study area.The result of multiple linear regression indicated that slope,wetness index,catchment area and sediment transport index,which were included in the model,could explain about 76 % of total variability in soil depth at the selected site.This proposed approach may be applicable to other hilly regions in the semi-arid areas at a larger scale.展开更多
Sand is an inert element essential in the composition of concrete; its use ensures granular continuity between the cement and gravel for better cohesion of concrete. This paper presents the results of a study that inv...Sand is an inert element essential in the composition of concrete; its use ensures granular continuity between the cement and gravel for better cohesion of concrete. This paper presents the results of a study that investigated the influence of sand quality on the properties of fresh and hardened SCC （self-compacting concrete）. The dune sands are very fine materials characterized by a high intergranular porosity, high surface area and low fineness modulus; on the other hand crushed （manufactured） sand has a high rate into thin and irregular shapes which influence the workability of concrete. The amount of dune sand varies from （0%, 50% to 100%） by weight of fine aggregates. The results show that the rheological properties favour the use of dune sands; however the mechanical properties support the use of crushed sand.展开更多
Measurements of topography at the segment of bifurcation between the South Channel and North Channel in the Yangtze Estuary were conducted, and a new type of subaqueous dune was discovered. This structure, newly defin...Measurements of topography at the segment of bifurcation between the South Channel and North Channel in the Yangtze Estuary were conducted, and a new type of subaqueous dune was discovered. This structure, newly defined as a catenary-bead dune, consists of a catenary dune and its associated elliptical pit bedform. Based on this finding, the nomenclature of "morphology of dune associated with accompanying bedform" is first proposed. The measured data indicate a mean height and wavelength of 1.29 m and 31.89 m, respectively; wavelength/height ratio(L/H) of 14 to 56; and elliptical pits of mean and maximum depth 0.98 m and 1.98 m, respectively. Flow information was obtained using an Acoustic Doppler Current Profile(ADCP), and the bed material components were gathered with a bottom sampler. The results show mean flood and ebb velocities of 0.27 and 0.78 m s?1, respectively, with shorter duration of flood tide than ebb tide. The silt, very fine sand, and fine sand fractions were within the ranges 21.6–23.4%, 28.2–32.2%, and 39.7–41.6%, respectively, revealing complex bed material composition. Water depth at the study site varies from 13 to 17 m. This finding will enrich the study of dunes and provide important data for geomorphological research. Moreover, the results are significant for engineering applications to estuaries.展开更多
Our objectives are to examine the effects of hummock-depression spatial heterogeneity on plant communities and soil properties,and to understand the process of maintaining and adjusting microtopography-mediated hydrol...Our objectives are to examine the effects of hummock-depression spatial heterogeneity on plant communities and soil properties,and to understand the process of maintaining and adjusting microtopography-mediated hydrological inputs and their spatial fluctuations that produce obvious microhabitats.We set up 36 plots(1 m×1 m)and sampled 45 plant and 225 soil samples in flooded(FH)and non-flooded hummocks(NFH)and depressions of the marshy,and the surrounding non-wetland meadows as well as in the Yellow River Source Zone,west China.We evaluated whether the alpine marshy wetland has a fertile island effect by the comparison method.Our results show that hummock presence can increase the spatial heterogeneity of the microhabitat and promote the plant diversity and soil fertility of the Kobresia tibetica community.Plant height,coverage,above-ground biomass,species richness and diversity were significantly higher in the FH and NFH microhabitat than in the areas between hummocks and surrounding non-wetland meadows.Compared with broad alpine meadows,the hummock-depression complex provided a microhabitat favorable to the growth of Cyperaceae.In the 0-50 cm soil layer,the closer the soil layer was to the ground surface,the higher its soil organic carbon and total nitrogen contents.Thus,in deeper layers,the gap between soil nutrients in wetland hummock-depression microhabitat and in the surrounding alpine meadows becomes smaller.Hence,the wetland hummock-depression microhabitat formed a fertile island pattern.Therefore,these results contribute toward improving our understanding of ecosystem restoration in alpine marshy meadows.展开更多
The impact of vegetation coverage on erosion and sediment yield in the Loess Plateau has been extensively studied,but the research has been primarily based on observations from slope runoff plots or secondary forest r...The impact of vegetation coverage on erosion and sediment yield in the Loess Plateau has been extensively studied,but the research has been primarily based on observations from slope runoff plots or secondary forest regions;the scaling method remains unresolved when it is applied at a large spatial scale,and it is difficult to apply to regions with severe soil and water loss given the predominance of herbs and shrubs.To date,there is little data on the quantitative impact of changes to vegetation on sediment concentration at a large spatial scale.This paper is based on vegetation information from remote sensing images,measured rainfall and sediment data over nearly 60 years,and results from previous runoff and sediment variation research on the Yellow River.We introduce the concepts of a sediment yield coefficient and the percentage of effective vegetation and erodible area,analyze the impact of different vegetation conditions on the flood sediment concentration and sediment yield,and evaluate the effect of rainfall intensity on sediment yield under different vegetation conditions at the watershed scale.We propose models to evaluate the impact of vegetation on sediment yield in the loess gully hilly region,which are based on remote sensing data and support an application at a large spatial scale.The models can be used to assess sediment reduction that results from the current significant improvement of vegetation in the Loess Plateau.展开更多
基金Under the auspices of Priority Academic Program Development of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions,National Natural Science Foundation of China(No.41271438,41471316,41401440,41671389)
文摘Gully feature mapping is an indispensable prerequisite for the motioning and control of gully erosion which is a widespread natural hazard. The increasing availability of high-resolution Digital Elevation Model(DEM) and remote sensing imagery, combined with developed object-based methods enables automatic gully feature mapping. But still few studies have specifically focused on gully feature mapping on different scales. In this study, an object-based approach to two-level gully feature mapping, including gully-affected areas and bank gullies, was developed and tested on 1-m DEM and Worldview-3 imagery of a catchment in the Chinese Loess Plateau. The methodology includes a sequence of data preparation, image segmentation, metric calculation, and random forest based classification. The results of the two-level mapping were based on a random forest model after investigating the effects of feature selection and class-imbalance problem. Results show that the segmentation strategy adopted in this paper which considers the topographic information and optimal parameter combination can improve the segmentation results. The distribution of the gully-affected area is closely related to topographic information, however, the spectral features are more dominant for bank gully mapping. The highest overall accuracy of the gully-affected area mapping was 93.06% with four topographic features. The highest overall accuracy of bank gully mapping is 78.5% when all features are adopted. The proposed approach is a creditable option for hierarchical mapping of gully feature information, which is suitable for the application in hily Loess Plateau region.
文摘Soil depth generally varies in mountainous regions in rather complex ways.Conventional soil survey methods for evaluating the soil depth in mountainous and hilly regions require a lot of time,effort and consequently relatively large budget to perform.This study was conducted to explore the relationships between soil depth and topographic attributes in a hilly region in western Iran.For this,one hundred sampling points were selected using randomly stratified methodology,and considering all geomorphic surfaces including summit,shoulder,backslope,footslope and toeslope;and soil depth was actually measured.Eleven primary and secondary topographic attributes were derived from the digital elevation model(DEM) at the study area.The result of multiple linear regression indicated that slope,wetness index,catchment area and sediment transport index,which were included in the model,could explain about 76 % of total variability in soil depth at the selected site.This proposed approach may be applicable to other hilly regions in the semi-arid areas at a larger scale.
文摘Sand is an inert element essential in the composition of concrete; its use ensures granular continuity between the cement and gravel for better cohesion of concrete. This paper presents the results of a study that investigated the influence of sand quality on the properties of fresh and hardened SCC （self-compacting concrete）. The dune sands are very fine materials characterized by a high intergranular porosity, high surface area and low fineness modulus; on the other hand crushed （manufactured） sand has a high rate into thin and irregular shapes which influence the workability of concrete. The amount of dune sand varies from （0%, 50% to 100%） by weight of fine aggregates. The results show that the rheological properties favour the use of dune sands; however the mechanical properties support the use of crushed sand.
基金the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 41476075)
文摘Measurements of topography at the segment of bifurcation between the South Channel and North Channel in the Yangtze Estuary were conducted, and a new type of subaqueous dune was discovered. This structure, newly defined as a catenary-bead dune, consists of a catenary dune and its associated elliptical pit bedform. Based on this finding, the nomenclature of "morphology of dune associated with accompanying bedform" is first proposed. The measured data indicate a mean height and wavelength of 1.29 m and 31.89 m, respectively; wavelength/height ratio(L/H) of 14 to 56; and elliptical pits of mean and maximum depth 0.98 m and 1.98 m, respectively. Flow information was obtained using an Acoustic Doppler Current Profile(ADCP), and the bed material components were gathered with a bottom sampler. The results show mean flood and ebb velocities of 0.27 and 0.78 m s?1, respectively, with shorter duration of flood tide than ebb tide. The silt, very fine sand, and fine sand fractions were within the ranges 21.6–23.4%, 28.2–32.2%, and 39.7–41.6%, respectively, revealing complex bed material composition. Water depth at the study site varies from 13 to 17 m. This finding will enrich the study of dunes and provide important data for geomorphological research. Moreover, the results are significant for engineering applications to estuaries.
基金Thank the members of the research team for their kind support in the experiment,and thank the Science and Technology Department of Qinghai Provincial for the funding of the application basic project(2019-ZJ-7035)Discipline Innovation and Introducing Talents Program of Higher Education Institutions(the 111 Project,D18013)Changjiang Scholars and Innovation Team Development plan(IRT_17R62).
文摘Our objectives are to examine the effects of hummock-depression spatial heterogeneity on plant communities and soil properties,and to understand the process of maintaining and adjusting microtopography-mediated hydrological inputs and their spatial fluctuations that produce obvious microhabitats.We set up 36 plots(1 m×1 m)and sampled 45 plant and 225 soil samples in flooded(FH)and non-flooded hummocks(NFH)and depressions of the marshy,and the surrounding non-wetland meadows as well as in the Yellow River Source Zone,west China.We evaluated whether the alpine marshy wetland has a fertile island effect by the comparison method.Our results show that hummock presence can increase the spatial heterogeneity of the microhabitat and promote the plant diversity and soil fertility of the Kobresia tibetica community.Plant height,coverage,above-ground biomass,species richness and diversity were significantly higher in the FH and NFH microhabitat than in the areas between hummocks and surrounding non-wetland meadows.Compared with broad alpine meadows,the hummock-depression complex provided a microhabitat favorable to the growth of Cyperaceae.In the 0-50 cm soil layer,the closer the soil layer was to the ground surface,the higher its soil organic carbon and total nitrogen contents.Thus,in deeper layers,the gap between soil nutrients in wetland hummock-depression microhabitat and in the surrounding alpine meadows becomes smaller.Hence,the wetland hummock-depression microhabitat formed a fertile island pattern.Therefore,these results contribute toward improving our understanding of ecosystem restoration in alpine marshy meadows.
基金supported by the National Key Technology R&D Program in the 12th Five-year Plan of China(Grant No.2012BAB02B05)National Natural Science Foundation of China(Grant No.41301030)
文摘The impact of vegetation coverage on erosion and sediment yield in the Loess Plateau has been extensively studied,but the research has been primarily based on observations from slope runoff plots or secondary forest regions;the scaling method remains unresolved when it is applied at a large spatial scale,and it is difficult to apply to regions with severe soil and water loss given the predominance of herbs and shrubs.To date,there is little data on the quantitative impact of changes to vegetation on sediment concentration at a large spatial scale.This paper is based on vegetation information from remote sensing images,measured rainfall and sediment data over nearly 60 years,and results from previous runoff and sediment variation research on the Yellow River.We introduce the concepts of a sediment yield coefficient and the percentage of effective vegetation and erodible area,analyze the impact of different vegetation conditions on the flood sediment concentration and sediment yield,and evaluate the effect of rainfall intensity on sediment yield under different vegetation conditions at the watershed scale.We propose models to evaluate the impact of vegetation on sediment yield in the loess gully hilly region,which are based on remote sensing data and support an application at a large spatial scale.The models can be used to assess sediment reduction that results from the current significant improvement of vegetation in the Loess Plateau.
