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Response of erosive rainfall thresholds on Loess slopes to land cover and rainfall intensity

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Abstract

Rainfall events of sufficient intensity can trigger soil erosion on loess hillslopes. Determining the actual threshold of erosive rainfall events is essential for reducing the workload of soil erosion forecasting and for providing scientific guidance for soil erosion prevention. Based on long-term field observations from runoff plots in representative regions of the Loess Plateau, including Suide, Xifeng, and Tianshui, this study applied an improved regression analysis method to identify rainfall thresholds for soil erosion under different erosion intensities. The variation of rainfall thresholds with rainfall intensity was further examined, and a nonlinear regression approach was used to develop predictive models of rainfall thresholds for soil erosion under different land cover conditions. Rainfall thresholds for slope soil erosion under different land cover types decrease exponentially with increasing rainfall intensity. Influenced by soil texture, rainfall thresholds for soil erosion on woodland, grassland, and bare slopes declined as soil texture became finer, while the rate of decline slowed with increasing rainfall intensity. Soil texture, land cover type, and rainfall characteristics exert significant influences on the effectiveness of vegetation in controlling runoff and soil erosion. These findings provide valuable insights into soil erosion prediction and serve as a reference for soil and water conservation planning.

Data availability

Data available on request due to privacy: the data presented in this study are available on request from the corresponding author.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to express our respect and gratitude to the anonymous reviewers and editors for their professional comments and suggestions.

Funding

The Natural Science Foundation of Henan Province (252300420859); Key Technology Research Project of Water Conservancy Science and Technology of Henan Provincial Water Resources Department(GG202516); National Natural Science Foundation of China (U214320029).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Surveying and Geo-Informatics, North China University of Water Resources and Electric Power, Zhengzhou, 450000, China

    Zimiao He, Gangxiang Yuan, Shilong Hao, Lu Zhang, Ran Wei, Haoqiang Tong, Huanheng Dou & Yinghong Guo

  2. China South-to-North Water Diversion Corporation, Central Plains Regional Headquarters, Zhengzhou, 450000, China

    Zhe Liu

  3. Hydrochina Beijing Engineering Corporation Limited, Beijing, 100000, China

    Dongyuan Qin

  4. Yellow River Institute of Hydraulic Research, Zhengzhou, 450000, China

    Peiqing Xiao

Authors

  1. Zimiao He
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  2. Gangxiang Yuan
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  3. Zhe Liu
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  4. Dongyuan Qin
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  5. Shilong Hao
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  6. Lu Zhang
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  8. Ran Wei
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  11. Yinghong Guo
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Contributions

Overall design, Z.H. and S.H.; methodology, G.Y. and S.H.; software, Z.L. and R.W.; formal analysis, D.Q., P.X. and H.T.; data curation, H.D. and Y.G.; writing—original draft preparation, G.Y.; writing—review and editing, Z.H. and L.Z. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to
Shilong Hao.

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He, Z., Yuan, G., Liu, Z. et al. Response of erosive rainfall thresholds on Loess slopes to land cover and rainfall intensity.
Sci Rep (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-026-38479-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-026-38479-7

Keywords

  • Soil erosion
  • Rainfall threshold model
  • Slope
  • Sub-rainfall event
  • Land cover type

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