Global assessment of wind erosion based on a spatially distributed RWEQ model

Abstract

Wind erosion is a global environmental problem and affects the sustainable use of land soil. The current efforts in wind erosion modeling mainly focus on local scales, yet very few studies have attempted to quantify the soil losses by wind on a large scale. Here, we proposed a distributed version of the revised wind erosion equation model (DRWEQ) to assess the spatial and temporal variations of wind erosion globally. The DRWEQ model used meteorological, soil, topographic, and remote sensing data to simulate global wind erosion from 2001 to 2010. The results showed that (a) the areas of wind erosion in Africa and Asia accounted for approximately 62% of the global wind erosion area but accounted for 91% of the global total soil loss; (b) global wind erosion showed a decreasing tendency during the research period – the wind erosion with a trend of intensification occupied 40.62% of the global wind erosion area while about 59.38% of the global wind erosion area showed a weakening trend; and (c) the monthly dynamics of the wind erosion were closely correlated with the combined effects of weather factors and vegetation coverage. The soil loss rates were lower in summer and reached the peak from January to April. The method presented in this study was developed based on the tradeoff of accuracy and availability of global data, and has the potential for predicting wind erosion from regional to global scales.

Identification of driving forces for windbreak and sand fixation services in semiarid and arid areas: A case of Inner Mongolia, China

“…According to the United Nations Environment Program, about 1.5 billion people worldwide depend on degraded land; while Africa and Asia account for about 62% of the wind-eroded areas in the world, they also suffer from 91% of the total soil loss (You et al, 2021; Yang et al, 2022). Land degradation caused by soil wind erosion has become a major global challenge for human survival and sustainable development.…”

Regional Potential Wind Erosion Simulation Using Different Models in the Agro-Pastoral Ecotone of Northern China

“…For the model structure, the NWESMC and RWEQ belonged to the empirical model, and the WEPS and IWEMS were mechanistic models [ 34 ]. These models were widely used for regional wind erosion evaluation in the arid and semi-arid China to date [ 64 ]. In this study, the version of the NWESMC was improved according to the national large-scale survey data in the first soil and water conservation survey [ 38 ].…”

“…In this study, the version of the NWESMC was improved according to the national large-scale survey data in the first soil and water conservation survey [ 38 ]. Abundant studies demonstrated that the RWEQ is capable of modeling daily, monthly, and annual (potential) wind erosion across field, regional, and global scales after some adjusting [ 32 , 64 , 65 ]. Here, we used the up-scaling method of RWEQ proposed by Guo [ 32 ].…”

“…Some studies calibrated [ 55 , 86 ] or validated [ 44 , 55 , 87 ] the models for regional wind erosion estimation. However, other studies directly evaluated regional wind erosion without calibration and validation of wind erosion models [ 26 , 27 , 32 , 48 , 64 , 88 , 89 ]. Here, we demonstrated that various values of potential wind erosion were yielded by different models using the same available databases.…”

Effects of conservation practices on global wind erosion control: Evidence from experimental data

“…Since then, a series of conservation practices have been tested and developed across the globe for wind erosion control, including various conservation tillage and vegetation measures (Nordstrom & Hotta, 2004). Erosion experiments, including 137Cs tracing technique and wind tunnels, are the major methods for wind erosion rate quantification (Yang et al, 2022).…”