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eISSN: 2083-5906
ISSN: 1230-1485
ISSN: 1230-1485
ORIGINAL RESEARCH
Spatiotemporal Variation in Soil Erosion and Its
Drivers in Guizhou: A RUSLE-Based Analysis
1
School of Geography and Environmental Science, Guizhou Normal University, Guiyang 550025, China
2
Guizhou Provincial Archives of Surveying and Mapping Data, Guiyang 550004, China
3
Key Laboratory of Remote Sensing Applications in Mountain Resources and Environment, Guiyang 550025, China
These authors had equal contribution to this work
Submission date: 2025-10-14
Final revision date: 2026-03-12
Acceptance date: 2026-04-13
Online publication date: 2026-09-18
Corresponding author
Tao Chen
School of Geography and Environmental Science, Guizhou Normal University, Guiyang 550025, China
School of Geography and Environmental Science, Guizhou Normal University, Guiyang 550025, China
Zhonghua He
School of Geography and Environmental Science, Guizhou Normal University, Guiyang 550025, China
School of Geography and Environmental Science, Guizhou Normal University, Guiyang 550025, China
KEYWORDS
TOPICS
ABSTRACT
Research on regional soil erosion under global climate change has attracted widespread attention.
Soil erosion in Guizhou Province, China, is severe due to the presence of extensively developed karst
formations, making it a major local ecological issue. In this context, the present study aims to calculate
the soil erosion modulus in Guizhou Province using the Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE)
and to assess its spatiotemporal variation characteristics. In addition, the relationships between soil
erosion and rainfall and vegetation coverage from 2000 to 2020 were further explored in this study.
The results showed that: (1) From 2000 to 2020, soil erosion in Guizhou Province was at low levels.
There was a significant linear increase in the average annual soil erosion modulus, with a change rate
of 0.0001 t/(hm²·a) (P<0.05). (2) The conversion between the different soil erosion levels over the study
period was generally manifested as a shift from low-level erosion (very slight, slight, and moderate
erosion) to high-level erosion (severe, very severe, and extremely severe erosion). Specifically, from
2000 to 2010, high-level erosion tended to shift to low-level erosion. From 2010 to 2020, on the other
hand, low-level erosion shifted to high-level erosion. (3) Rainfall was the dominant factor affecting soil
erosion changes in Guizhou Province from 2000 to 2020, while improvements in vegetation conditions
played a major role in reducing the soil erosion modulus.
CONFLICT OF INTEREST
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
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| ISSN: | 1230-1485 |
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