ABSTRACT
Shelterbelt system is one of the main components of cultivated slope land in rolling hill black soil region of Northeast China, which plays an important role in the control of gully erosion. Based on the Quickbird high-resolution remote sensing image and the digital elevation model (DEM), and combining with field survey data, this paper analyzed the effects of shelterbelt system in a small watershed of rolling hill black soil region in Heshan Farm of Heilongjiang Province on the control of gully erosion in the cultivated slope land, and put forward an optimized scheme for gully erosion control based on the features of gully erosion in the cultivated slope land and their relations with the distribution of the shelterbelt system. In the study area, the current distribution of the shelterbelt system promoted the occurrence and development of shallow gully and gully directly and indirectly. The proposed scheme for optimizing the distribution of the present shelterbelts included the adjustment of the direction of the shelterbelt perpendicular to the aspect of slope, the enhancement of the maintenance and regeneration of the shelterbelts to reduce the gaps of the shelterbelts, the increase of the shelterbelt number, and the decrease of the distances between shelterbelts. A method for calculating the shelterbelt number and the distances between the shelterbelts was also given. This study could provide scientific basis for the gully erosion control and the shelterbelts programming in the cultivated slope land of rolling hill black soil region.
