Soil Erosion and Sedimentation Model in the Yellow River Basin: State-of-the-Art Review
黄河流域土壤侵蚀产沙模型研究进展

Studies on soil erosion and sedimentation have been a very active field of research in geography, water and soil conservation, hydrology and water resources for many years. During the past several years, a great deal of in-depth studies on soil erosion and sedimentation models in the Yellow River basin, especially in Loess Plateau, were carried out, and many good results achieved. With the implementation of "Model Yellow River" during the past years, many soil erosion and sedimentation models including empirical model, conceptual model, and physically-based distributed model have been developed and tested in the Yellow River basin. On the other hand, with the combination of water and soil conservation, water resources allocation and management, and rational allocation and utilization of soil and water resources, some good models developed and tested in abroad countries have been introduced into and used in China recently. From two aspects including the development of new models and the application of old models developed in foreign countries, major results achieved in China from the middle of the 1990s in the field of soil erosion and sedimentation modeling have been reviewed in this paper. Some recommendation and suggestions are given for the future study of soil erosion and sedimentation modeling in the study area. As several of the preliminary conclusions obtained in this study, the field experiment measurement is necessary for any kind of theoretical or empirical models. The application of geographic information system (GIS) and remote sensing techniques will greatly improve the performance of any soil erosion and sedimentation model. The development and application of physically-based distributed model will be one of the best choices in the field of research in the future.