Analysis on sediment yield reduced by current terrace and shrubs-herbs-arbor vegetation in the Loess Plateau

The sediment yield of the Yellow River have been reduced sharply since 2000. Based on the re-mote sensing information and local investigation in the sandy region of the Loess Plateau,this investigationanalyzes the quantity and quality of the current terrace, the status of shrubs- herbs- arbor vegetation in2010-2013 and the restoration effect comparing with its natural period. Their sediment reduction calculationmethods and procedures for the coexistence situation of the terrace and shrubs-herbs-arbor vegetation resto-ration were demonstrated in this paper. Under the average rainfall condition of years,the calculation resultrevealed that the sediment reduction capacity of the current terrace and shrubs-herbs-arbor vegetation attheir 2010-2013 level is about 1.065 billion ton in the area of above Longmen,Zhuangtou of the BeiluoRiver, Hejin of the Fenhe River, Xianyang of the Weihe River and Zhangjiashan of the Jinghe River,which account for 60% of its original sediment yield.