Distribution characteristics of gullies with slope gradient in Northeast China

Twenty selected watersheds were divided into five small watershed sets according to location in Liaoning Province (LN), China. Watersheds and slopes were extracted from a 1:50,000 DEM, and gully data for each watershed were obtained by remote sensing interpretation. The gullies and associated slopes within the small watersheds were identified, and the distributions of gully density, proportion of dissected land, and gully length-width ratio in each small LN watershed and in the five small watershed sets were obtained. The correlations between the small watershed sets and the gully distributions throughout LN demonstrate regional distribution differences, and the watershed area has a great influence on both the area and length of gullies. Regional differences are present in the gully density and the proportion of dissected land in the small watersheds. The distribution of gullies with respect to slope depends on both the gully parameters and the proportion of terrain in the different slope grade ranges. The distribution results for the five small watershed sets are similar to those from a census of the Liaoning-Around Bohai mountainous and hilly sub-region. The gully density and proportion of dissected land in LN showed a single-peak curve with respect to slope, with slope thresholds of 8° and 5°, respectively. The constructed distribution equation has a high degree of fit. The comprehensive distributions of gully density, proportion of dissected land, and length-width ratio with slope indicate that gully erosion in LN is serious within the slope range of 3~8°.