A Study on Distributed Simulation of Soil Wind Erosion and Its Application to the Tuhaimajia River Basin

Under the joint effects of the basic natural conditions and human activities, soil wind erosion is very serious in the Tuhaimajia River Basin situated in the semi-humid region. The large-scale application of agricultural water saving measures in the river basin is directly affecting the moisture content and its temporal and spatial distribution of crop root zone. Soil moisture is an important factor influencing soil wind erosion, and the effect of agricultural water saving on soil erosion becomes an important indicator for the evaluation of water saving in the river basin. Based on a distributed simulation model for water resources allocation and water cycle (WACM) developed before, a process-based, continuous daily distributed simulation model for soil wind erosion is developed by adding the function of soil wind erosion simulation to WACM, and this model may be used to simulate the regional soil wind erosion process under the current conditions and with the effects of climate change, and water supply & use and farming activities of human beings. With this newly developed model, the 15-year soil wind erosion process in the Tuhaimajia River Basin during 1991-2005 is reconstructed, and it is discovered from the simulation results that the average soil wind erosion modulus of the 15 years is 1.217kg/m(2).a, i.e., the river basin as a whole has slight soil erosion, but soil wind erosion is very serious in some years and in parts of the river basin. The soil wind erosion of 1991 is at a moderate level, and the average soil wind erosion is also at a moderate level in some areas such as Xiajin in Shandong Province. Finally, quantitative analysis is preliminarily made on the effects of large-scale application of water saving measures on soil wind erosion in the river basin, indicating that intensive water saving exerts slight effects on the overall situation of soil wind erosion in the river basin, but produces significant effects in some areas. (C) 2009 Published by Elsevier Ltd.