Spatial scale effects of water erosion dynamics: Complexities, variabilities, and uncertainties |
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| Authors: | Wei Wei Liding Chen Lei Yang Bojie Fu Ranhao Sun |
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| Institution: | WEI Wei, CHEN Liding, YANG Lei, FU Bojie, SUN Ranhao (State Key Laboratory of Urban and Regional Ecology, Research Center for Eco-environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100085, China) |
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| Abstract: | Severe water erosion is notorious for its harmful effects on land-water resources as well as local societies. The scale effects
of water erosion, however, greatly exacerbate the difficulties of accurate erosion evaluation and hazard control in the real
world. Analyzing the related scale issues is thus urgent for a better understanding of erosion variations as well as reducing
such erosion. In this review article, water erosion dynamics across three spatial scales including plot, watershed, and regional
scales were selected and discussed. For the study purposes and objectives, the advantages and disadvantages of these scales
all demonstrate clear spatial-scale dependence. Plot scale studies are primarily focused on abundant data collection and mechanism
discrimination of erosion generation, while watershed scale studies provide valuable information for watershed management
and hazard control as well as the development of quantitatively distributed models. Regional studies concentrate more on large-scale
erosion assessment, and serve policymakers and stakeholders in achieving the basis for regulatory policy for comprehensive
land uses. The results of this study show that the driving forces and mechanisms of water erosion variations among the scales
are quite different. As a result, several major aspects contributing to variations in water erosion across the scales are
stressed: differences in the methodologies across various scales, different sink-source roles on water erosion processes,
and diverse climatic zones and morphological regions. This variability becomes more complex in the context of accelerated
global change. The changing climatic factors and earth surface features are considered the fourth key reason responsible for
the increased variability of water erosion across spatial scales. |
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| Keywords: | water erosion spatial variation scale effect driving force uncertainty complexity |
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