Evaluation of the environmental effects of intensive land consolidation: A field-based case study of the Chinese Loess Plateau |
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| Institution: | 1. State Key Laboratory of Loess and Quaternary Geology, Institute of Earth Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xi’an, Shaanxi 710061, China;2. CAS Center for Excellence in Quaternary Science and Global Change, Xi’an, 710061, China;3. Interdisciplinary Research Center of Earth Science Frontier, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China;4. College of Natural Resources and Environment, Northwest A&F University, Yangling, Shaanxi 712100, China;5. Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, 710049, China;6. Graduate University of Chinese Academy of Science, Beijing 100049, China;7. Yan’an City Land and Resources Bureau, Yan’an, Shaanxi 716000, China;1. Beijing Research Center for Information Technology in Agriculture, Beijing Academy of Agriculture and Forestry Sciences, Beijing 100097, China;2. National Engineering Research Center for Information Technology in Agriculture, Beijing 100097, China;3. Key Laboratory of Agri-informatics, Ministry of Agriculture, Beijing 100097, China;4. Beijing Engineering Research Center of Agricultural Internet of Things, Beijing 100097, China;1. Department of Environmental Engineering and Geodesy, University of Life Sciences, Lublin, Poland;2. Department of Spatial Planning and Environmental Sciences, Faculty of Geodesy and Cartography, Warsaw University of Technology, Warsaw, Poland;1. AGH University of Science and Technology, Faculty of Mining Surveying and Environmental Engineering, Department of Integrated Geodesy and Cartography, Pav. C-4, 30 A. Mickiewicza St., 30-059 Kraków, Poland;2. The Bronisław Markiewicz State University of Technology and Economics in Jarosław, Institute of Technical Engineering, 16 Czarnieckiego St., 37-500 Jarosław, Poland;1. Department of Agricultural Land Surveying, Cadastre and Photogrammetry, Faculty of Environmental Engineering and Land Surveying, University of Agriculture in Krakow, ul. Balicka 253a, 30-198, Krakow, Poland;2. Department of Landscape Ecology, Faculty of Geographical and Geological Sciences, Adam Mickiewicz University, ul. Krygowskiegio 10, 61-680, Poznan, Poland;1. IFAPA, Centro Camino de Purchil, Dep. of Agricultural Economics, Granada, Spain;2. IFAPA, Centro Venta del llano, Mengíbar, Jaén, Spain |
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| Abstract: | The large-scale implementation of the Grain for Green project on the Chinese Loess Plateau since 1999 has greatly increased the vegetation coverage and rapidly decreased the agricultural land by converting slope cropland to planted vegetation (forest and grasslands). However, the geological, hydrological, ecological, and agricultural effects of the Gully Land Consolidation (GLC) project launched at Yan’an City in 2011 to address these land-use problems are not clearly understood. To assess the project outcomes in this region, we examined 71 of the 193 subprojects (61 treated gullies and 10 untreated gullies); measured geological, hydrological, ecological, and agricultural indices in the field; and tested disturbed (n = 447) and undisturbed (n = 142) soil samples (e.g., particle size distribution, saturated hydraulic conductivity, bulk density, and heavy metal contents). We found that: (1) slope stability improved for 67 % of the subprojects, (2) severe swamping was found only for 2 % of the subprojects, (3) the average increase in NDVI was 0.0231, 69 % of treated gullies NDVI was increased, and (4) crop yield was overall improved. There were no significant differences between the treated and untreated gullies in soil texture, saturated hydraulic conductivity, bulk density, or heavy metal contents (Cr, Zn, Cu, Ni, Pb), although particle size contents (range of 0.05 mm – 0.20 mm) differed significantly (p < 0.05). To promote successful gully land consolidation, the GLC project should (1) prioritize slope stability and long-term maintenance of water preservation facilities in gullies, (2) use bioengineering to accelerate the maturation of newly created land, or develop new cropping system after the GLC project; (3) on the basis of Grain for Green, integrate the GLC project, and modern agriculture to be complementary. |
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| Keywords: | Eco-hydrological effect Environmental factor Gully land consolidation Land management Land restoration Soil physicochemical property |
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