A successful experiment with a physical model requires necessary conditions of similarity. This study presents an experimental method with a semi-scale physical model. The model is used to monitor and verify soil conservation by check dams in a small watershed on the Loess Plateau of China. During experiments, the model-prototype ratio of geomorphic variables was kept constant under each rainfall event. Consequently, experimental data are available for verification of soil erosion processes in the field and for predicting soil loss in a model watershed with check dams. Thus, it can predict the amount of soil loss in a catchment. This study also mentions four criteria: similarities of watershed geometry, grain size and bare land, Froude number (Fr) for rainfall event, and soil erosion in downscaled models. The efficacy of the proposed method was confirmed using these criteria in two different downscaled model experiments. The B-Model, a large scale model, simulates watershed prototype. The two small scale models, D(a) and D(b), have different erosion rates, but are the same size. These two models simulate hydraulic processes in the B-Model. Experiment results show that while soil loss in the small scale models was converted by multiplying the soil loss scale number, it was very close to that of the B-Model. Obviously, with a semi-scale physical model, experiments are available to verify and predict soil loss in a small watershed area with check dam system on the Loess Plateau, China.

Based on the verified two dimensional(2D) finite element model for river flow simulation, the effect of estuary training levees on the water flow and sediment movement in the Yellow River estuary is analyzed. For disclosing the effect of setting the two training levees on the flow and sediment motion, the calculation and analysis for the two projects, (one is no levees, the other is setting up two no levees) are given. The results show that when setting up two training levees, water flow is bound by levees and the water flows become more concentrated. As a result, velocity increases in the main channel, sediment carrying capacity of water flow increases correspondingly.