Theoretical and practical research into excavation slope protection for agricultural geographical engineering in the Loess Plateau: A case study of China's Yangjuangou catchment

作者：Weilun Feng, Yansui Liu, Zongfeng Chen, Yurui Li, Yunxin Huang · 发表于：Journal of Rural Studies · 年份：2019 · DOI：10.1016/j.jrurstud.2019.01.020 · 被引用次数：32 · 研究领域：Rural development and sustainability、Tree Root and Stability Studies、Rangeland Management and Livestock Ecology

The Loess Plateau is one of the most vulnerable areas in the world as it is extremely susceptible to soil erosion and ecological destruction. Recently, the local government carried out the “Gully Land Consolidation Project” (GLCP) in the Loess Plateau region to increase farmland area, improve rural production and living conditions. Among all the GLCP engineering constructions, slope protection engineering plays an important role in ensuring the safety of the main project, residential lives and properties, although more theoretical and technical research on comprehensive protection of engineering slopes is required. In this study, a field experiment using 12 standard runoff plots (length 4m×width 2m) was performed in Yangjuangou catchment of Yan'an City, to compare and analyze the comprehensive benefit to vegetative growth, soil erosion and engineering benefit from four vegetation styles and three levels of slope gradient (45°, 53°,63°). Results show that under different slope gradient and vegetation styles, significant differences existed in the comprehensive benefit to slopes, as well as the levels of vegetative growth, soil erosion and engineering benefit. The comprehensive benefit of the 53° slope was significantly better than that of 45° and 63° slopes. In addition, the comprehensive benefit of slopes with one or more vegetation styles was better than that of non-vegetation covered slopes. With the increase in slope gradient, the vegetative growth and slope erosion indice...