Spatio-Temporal Change of the Cover and Management Factor in the Soil Erosion Prediction Model in Hunan Province, China

Soil erosion is an important research issue because it can result in serious hazards, such as land quality degrading, flood frequency increasing and deposit in rivers and lakes. The factor of cover and management is a parameter of the soil erosion prediction model and it is the ratio of soil erosion of the present cover and management to continuous clear tillage. Good vegetation cover and the effective land management can control soil erosion to some extent. Quantitative assessment the factor of cover and management in a region scale can provide the cover and management data and some good suggestion for the land use and soil conservation planning. This study chooses Hunan Province in the central and southern China which has no relevant research till now. With the land use and vegetation coverage data of 30 meters resolution extracted from Landsat images in 2000, 2005, 2010 and 2015, the cover and management factor of this region is evaluated and the spatial-temporal characteristics of land use and the factor is analyzed by using the evaluation method, GIS spatial analysis and statistical analysis. The results are as follows. Because the main terrains are mountains and hills which account for 70 percent of the whole province area, the main land use types are forest land and grassland. The mean of cover and management factor is 0.06739, 0.06783, 0.06876 and 0.07421 in 2000, 2005, 2010 and 2015 respectively. The factor increased about 10 percent from 2000 to 2015. The change of cover and management factor may increase soil losses risk if the other factors affecting soil losses are not taken into account.