Depicting, spatializing, and decoupling the impact of human activities on soil erosion in the hilly red soil region of southern China from the perspective of soil erosion influence factors

Abstract

Human activities are the primary cause of increasing soil erosion worldwide. A comparative analysis of different human activity types on soil erosion can provide detailed insights into their respective roles. This study focused on Jiangxi Province, a typical red soil hilly region, to assess the impact of human activities on soil erosion based on natural influencing factors. Human activities were classified into vegetation-based human activities (VHA), soil-based human activities (SHA), and terrain-based human activities (THA). We proposed a combined impact index and a decoupling method to calculate the separate impact index for each type. The results revealed that from 2000 to 2020: (1) VHA was the dominant type, covering about 65% of the study area, followed by SHA (20%) and THA (3%). (2) The deteriorating effects of SHA were about two times greater than those of VHA, while the alleviating effect of THA was much smaller than both deteriorating effects. This study offers a new perspective for understanding the effects of human activities on soil erosion by comparing the impacts of different types of human activities.