Dynamic Impact Assessment of Afforestation on Soil and Water Loss Risk in the Loess Plateau Based on GEE and GIS

Zihang Zhang

doi:10.54254/2753-8818/2026.PJ30142

Abstract

The Loess Plateau is one of the most severely eroded regions in the world, facing challenges from soil and water loss. Since the implementation of the "Grain for Green Program," its ecological environment has improved, but the dynamic impact of vegetation restoration on erosion over the long-term and on a large scale still requires study. This study develops an integrated framework that leverages Google Earth Engine (GEE) for cloud-based computation alongside GIS spatial analysis. Hua Chi County in Gansu Province serves as a representative case to examine the influence of afforestation on soil and water loss. Multi-temporal Landsat and Sentinel-2 imagery (2008–2020), together with DEM, precipitation, and soil datasets, were systematically combined to assess these effects. The Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE) model was applied to assess erosion risk. Results show that, based on the afforestation_mask used in this analysis, the suspected afforestation area contains 1,975,341 pixels at 30 m resolution, corresponding to approximately 17,777.7 ha (percentage of the study area should be recalculated against the study area total). Within these masked pixels, mean NDVI increased from ~0.08328 in the pre-period to ~0.26032 in the post-period, with the mean NDVI increment in improved subareas ≈0.25299. Under the implemented RUSLE setup, the E index averaged 0.021931 in the pre-period and 0.016785 in the post-period (mean relative change ≈ −23.59%). The image-mean ΔRisk_Index over the mask is −0.008548917485758648, indicating that vegetation recovery contributed to reduced potential erosion risk.

Keywords: Loess Plateau , afforestation , soil and water loss , Google Earth Engine , RUSLE

Article Information

Received: 24 November 2025

Published: 4 December 2025

DOI: https://doi.org/10.54254/2753-8818/2026.PJ30142

Article Type: Research Article

Cite this article

Zhang,Z. (2025). Dynamic Impact Assessment of Afforestation on Soil and Water Loss Risk in the Loess Plateau Based on GEE and GIS. Theoretical and Natural Science,149,107-114.

Data availability

The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study will be available from the authors upon reasonable request.

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About this Volume

Volume Title: TNS Vol.149

Part of Series: Theoretical and Natural Science

ISSN: 2753-8818 (Print) / 2753-8826 (Online)

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