Using Remote-Sensing Technologies In Combination With Cesium-137 Measurements To Estimate Soil-Erosion Quantity In Semi-Arid Steppe Areas

Soil erosion by wind is one of the most important processes in the changing the earth's surface in semi-arid areas, Thus it is of great importance to study soil-erosion action. Using integrated technologies of remote sensing and geochemistry radioactivity isotope to extract regional soil-erosion information and to calculate quantity of soil erosion is accomplished successfully in this paper by means of beneficial experiments in the Talatan region of the Gonghe Basin, which is located in northeastern Qinghai-Tibet Plateau in China. The results show that the soil erosion by wind is not intensive in this region; the erosion types belong to the classes of very-soft erosion and soft-erosion type, which account for 47.12 percent and 35.58 percent, respectively, of the total study area. In total, two kinds of soil erosion account for 82.70 percent of the study area; only a small area belongs to the classes of severe erosion and very-severe erosion; this area is about 22.14 km(2). Severe deposition activity has taken place in this region, and has appeared in a large area (322.67 km(2)), which accounts for 11.78 percent of the total study area. The results of this study show that soil erosion and deposition inventories are 870,000-1,150,000 tons and 550,000-780,000 tons, respectively, per year. The soil inventory shows about 320,000-370,000 tons from Talatan to Longyangxia reservoir per year. Using remote-sensing technology and Cs-137 techniques is a valid means to analyze and to evaluate the quantity of soil erosion by wind in semi-arid environments.