IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jagris/v13y2023i10p1945-d1254153.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Soil Erosion in Taiwan

Author

Listed:
  • Walter Chen

    (Department of Civil Engineering, National Taipei University of Technology, Taipei 10608, Taiwan)

  • Kieu Anh Nguyen

    (Department of Civil Engineering, National Taipei University of Technology, Taipei 10608, Taiwan)

  • Yu-Chieh Huang

    (Department of Civil Engineering, National Taipei University of Technology, Taipei 10608, Taiwan)

Abstract

Soil erosion is a complex process involving material detachment, transportation (mainly by water, occasionally by wind), and eventual deposition when energy wanes. Human activities like tillage and construction can exacerbate soil erosion. Various forms of water erosion, such as sheet erosion, pedestal erosion, rills, piping, and gullying, are recognized. This pioneering study aims to comprehensively model water erosion across Taiwan at a 20 m spatial resolution, a departure from previous research focusing on smaller scales. Using the Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE) model, it seeks to examine the significant issue of soil erosion in Taiwan beyond agricultural areas and enable cross-regional comparisons. A large number of stations and the most recent data were used to establish the distributions of the rainfall runoff erosivity factor and the soil erodibility factor. In addition, we used the Google Earth Engine (GEE) to calculate the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and a locally derived empirical equation to compute the cover-management factor. The topographic factor was determined using the System for Automated Geoscientific Analyses (SAGA). The support practice factor was analyzed using two different methods using datasets on World Urban Areas and Global Urban Boundaries from the literature. The analysis showed that despite the difference in the support practice factor, Taiwan’s resulting average yearly soil erosion rates are very similar (200.7 Mg ha −1 year −1 and 207.4 Mg ha −1 year −1 ). The amounts were validated against five watersheds that were instrumented with erosion pins. With prediction ratios ranging from 1.04 to 1.82 across four of the five watersheds, our findings provide empirical support for the alignment of our model with soil erosion pin measurements, especially within the Tsengwen reservoir watershed. However, it is noteworthy that these results also exhibit a tendency towards conservative estimations in the remaining watersheds. Our calculated estimate, falling within the range of 201–207 Mg ha −1 year −1 , plausibly represents the upper limit of mean soil erosion in Taiwan. This assertion is predicated on the deliberate omission of local soil conservation measures from our study, a decision necessitated by the absence of comprehensive and detailed island-wide data. Despite this limitation, our results instill confidence in the robustness of our methodological approach, thereby suggesting that our estimation of soil erosion in Taiwan provides a reliable approximation.

Suggested Citation

  • Walter Chen & Kieu Anh Nguyen & Yu-Chieh Huang, 2023. "Soil Erosion in Taiwan," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 13(10), pages 1-18, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jagris:v:13:y:2023:i:10:p:1945-:d:1254153
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/13/10/1945/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/13/10/1945/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Walter Chen & Wu-Hsun Wang & Kieu Anh Nguyen, 2022. "Soil Erosion and Deposition in a Taiwanese Watershed Using USPED," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(6), pages 1-17, March.
    2. Yu-Jia Chiu & Kang-Tsung Chang & Yi-Chin Chen & Jiunn-Hsing Chao & Hong-Yuan Lee, 2011. "Estimation of soil erosion rates in a subtropical mountain watershed using 137 Cs radionuclide," Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, Springer;International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, vol. 59(1), pages 271-284, October.
    3. Walter Chen & Kieu Anh Nguyen, 2022. "The New Island-Wide LS Factors of Taiwan, with Comparison with EU Nations," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(5), pages 1-11, March.
    4. Ching-Nuo Chen & Chih-Heng Tsai & Chang-Tai Tsai, 2011. "Simulation of Runoff and Suspended Sediment Transport Rate in a Basin with Multiple Watersheds," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 25(3), pages 793-816, February.
    5. Kieu Anh Nguyen & Walter Chen & Bor-Shiun Lin & Uma Seeboonruang & Kent Thomas, 2019. "Predicting Sheet and Rill Erosion of Shihmen Reservoir Watershed in Taiwan Using Machine Learning," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(13), pages 1-18, July.
    6. Wen-Tzu Lin & Wen-Chieh Chou & Chao-Yuan Lin, 2008. "Earthquake-induced landslide hazard and vegetation recovery assessment using remotely sensed data and a neural network-based classifier: a case study in central Taiwan," Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, Springer;International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, vol. 47(3), pages 331-347, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Mukhiddin Juliev & Madinabonu Kholmurodova & Bekmurat Abdikairov & Jilili Abuduwaili, . "A comprehensive review of soil erosion research in Central Asian countries (1993-2022) based on the Scopus database," Soil and Water Research, Czech Academy of Agricultural Sciences, vol. 0.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Kieu Anh Nguyen & Walter Chen & Bor-Shiun Lin & Uma Seeboonruang, 2020. "Using Machine Learning-Based Algorithms to Analyze Erosion Rates of a Watershed in Northern Taiwan," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(5), pages 1-16, March.
    2. Semih Ediş & Özgür Burhan Timur & Gamze Tuttu & İbrahim Aytaş & Ceyhun Göl & Ali Uğur Özcan, 2023. "Assessing the Impact of Engineering Measures and Vegetation Restoration on Soil Erosion: A Case Study in Osmancık, Türkiye," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(15), pages 1-16, August.
    3. Min-Yuan Cheng & Nhat-Duc Hoang, 2015. "Typhoon-induced slope collapse assessment using a novel bee colony optimized support vector classifier," Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, Springer;International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, vol. 78(3), pages 1961-1978, September.
    4. Ting Yang & Quanjiu Wang & Lijun Su & Laosheng Wu & Guangxu Zhao & Yanli Liu & Pengyu Zhang, 2016. "An Approximately Semi-Analytical Model for Describing Surface Runoff of Rainwater Over Sloped Land," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 30(11), pages 3935-3948, September.
    5. Walter Chen & Kieu Anh Nguyen, 2022. "The New Island-Wide LS Factors of Taiwan, with Comparison with EU Nations," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(5), pages 1-11, March.
    6. Vaibhav Garg & V. Jothiprakash, 2012. "Sediment Yield Assessment of a Large Basin using PSIAC Approach in GIS Environment," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 26(3), pages 799-840, February.
    7. Tao Xu & Siqi Yi & Yong Zhou & Qing Li & Yizhu Liu, 2022. "Temporal and Spatial Changes and Driving Forces of Soil Properties in Subtropical Mountainous Areas from 2017 to 2020: A Case Study of Baokang County, Hubei Province, China," Land, MDPI, vol. 11(10), pages 1-22, October.
    8. Kent Thomas & Walter Chen & Bor-Shiun Lin & Uma Seeboonruang, 2020. "Evaluation of the SEdiment Delivery Distributed (SEDD) Model in the Shihmen Reservoir Watershed," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(15), pages 1-21, August.
    9. Wei-ping Lou & Hai-yan Chen & Xin-fa Qiu & Qi-yi Tang & Feng Zheng, 2012. "Assessment of economic losses from tropical cyclone disasters based on PCA-BP," Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, Springer;International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, vol. 60(3), pages 819-829, February.
    10. Wei Zhang & Yan Zhu & Xuejun Wang, 2014. "A Modeling Method to Evaluate the Management Strategy of Urban Storm Runoff," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 28(2), pages 541-552, January.
    11. Quanjun Jiao & Bing Zhang & Liangyun Liu & Zhenwang Li & Yuemin Yue & Yong Hu, 2014. "Assessment of spatio-temporal variations in vegetation recovery after the Wenchuan earthquake using Landsat data," Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, Springer;International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, vol. 70(2), pages 1309-1326, January.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jagris:v:13:y:2023:i:10:p:1945-:d:1254153. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.