The Effect of Land Use and Climate Change on Soil Erosion in Jialing River Basin, China

Soil erosion is a global environmental problem threatening the development of economies and societies. The impacts of land use and climate changes on hydrological processes and sediment transport are receiving widespread concern for researchers and policy makers. The Jialing River Basin in China is suffering serious eco-environmental problems, such as soil erosion, which could affect the water quality of Yangtze River. To investigate the impacts of land use and climate change on the soil erosion and sediment yield in the Jialing River Basin, the Lizixi Watershed which located in the downstream of Jialing River was selected as the study area. In this study, the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model was applied to establish the distributed hydrological model to simulate different climate and land use scenarios. The results revealed that under the same condition of climate, wheat can reduce soil erosion effectively, followed by sweet potato, corn, and rape if the farmland plant single crop. Mixed planting also had good effect on reduce the soil erosion and sediment yield, further researches should be done to determine which kind of mixed planting have the best effect. Compared with temperature, changes of rainfall intensity had a larger effect on runoff and sediment yield in the Lizixi Watershed, so local government should take some protection measures to prevent flood disaster during heavy rainstorm period. The conclusion of this paper could provide references for soil and water conservation works and environmental protection in the Jialing River Basin.