Estimation of soil erosion and its spatial analysis in Maotiaohe watershed, Guizhou Province

Taking Maotiaohe watershed, Guizhou Province as study area, applying Geographic Information System(GIS) technology, and adopting Revised Universal Soil Erosion(RUSLE), the soil losses in Maotiaohe watershed were estimated, the spatial distribution of soil erosion characteristics in the watershed were presented. The soil erosion map was overlayed respectively with slope, aspect maps from DEM and land use maps to analyze the erosion status. And the relationship among soil erosion and its background including elevation, slope, aspect and land use was revealed. The results show that the soil erosion modulus are 26.7t /(hm²·a) and the soil losses are highest in downstream area of Maotiaohe watershed. Soil erosion is serious respectively from 6 to 25 of slope degree, south aspect, elevation area from 1200 to 1400 meters, where is the particular area of soil and water loss prevention. As far as land use is concerned, soil losses are highest in dry land, and those in shrub land are second. Among all counties, the derease order of soil loss is Qingzhen county, Pingba county and Xiuwen county, which has close relationship with the soil erosion area and erosion intensity of the county.