Spatio-Temporal Characteristics of the Morphological Development of Gully Erosion on the Chinese Loess Plateau

Hu, Jinfei; He, Yifan; Huang, Keyao; Li, Pengfei; Li, Shugang; Yan, Lu; Tang, Bingzhe

doi:10.3390/rs17152710

Open AccessArticle

Spatio-Temporal Characteristics of the Morphological Development of Gully Erosion on the Chinese Loess Plateau

by

Jinfei Hu

,

Yifan He

,

Keyao Huang

,

Pengfei Li

^*

,

Shugang Li

,

Lu Yan

and

Bingzhe Tang

College of Geomatics, Xi’an University of Science and Technology, Xi’an 710054, China

^*

Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.

Remote Sens. 2025, 17(15), 2710; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs17152710

Submission received: 28 June 2025 / Revised: 28 July 2025 / Accepted: 4 August 2025 / Published: 5 August 2025

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Geodata Science and Spatial Analysis with Remote Sensing)

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Abstract

Morphology is an important characteristic of the hydraulic and gravitational processes driving gully erosion. In this study, field scouring experiments were conducted on five experimental plots using terrestrial laser scanning to study gully erosion processes. The erosion and deposition on a gully slope were quantified using the M3C2 algorithm. The results show that the proportion of sediment yield of the gully slope in the whole slope–gully system ranged from 81.5% to 99.7% for different flow discharges (25, 40, 55, 70, and 85 L/min). Compared with low flow discharges (25 and 40 L/min), the gully slope presented more intense gully head retreat and higher erosion intensity under relatively high discharges (55, 70, and 85 L/min). Alcove expansion processes were characterized by horizontal and vertical cycles. Vertical dynamic changes were dominated by the co-evolution of collapses of the gully head and the deepening of the alcove. Horizontal development mainly manifested as a widening of the alcove caused by the hydraulic erosion of the gully wall. The roughness of the gully slope increased gradually with the increase in scour times and then tended towards stability. These results provide a reference for understanding the processes and mechanisms of gully erosion.

Keywords: field scouring experiments; terrestrial laser scanning; alcove erosion; gully head retreat; topographically complex areas

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MDPI and ACS Style

Hu, J.; He, Y.; Huang, K.; Li, P.; Li, S.; Yan, L.; Tang, B. Spatio-Temporal Characteristics of the Morphological Development of Gully Erosion on the Chinese Loess Plateau. Remote Sens. 2025, 17, 2710. https://doi.org/10.3390/rs17152710

AMA Style

Hu J, He Y, Huang K, Li P, Li S, Yan L, Tang B. Spatio-Temporal Characteristics of the Morphological Development of Gully Erosion on the Chinese Loess Plateau. Remote Sensing. 2025; 17(15):2710. https://doi.org/10.3390/rs17152710

Chicago/Turabian Style

Hu, Jinfei, Yifan He, Keyao Huang, Pengfei Li, Shugang Li, Lu Yan, and Bingzhe Tang. 2025. "Spatio-Temporal Characteristics of the Morphological Development of Gully Erosion on the Chinese Loess Plateau" Remote Sensing 17, no. 15: 2710. https://doi.org/10.3390/rs17152710

APA Style

Hu, J., He, Y., Huang, K., Li, P., Li, S., Yan, L., & Tang, B. (2025). Spatio-Temporal Characteristics of the Morphological Development of Gully Erosion on the Chinese Loess Plateau. Remote Sensing, 17(15), 2710. https://doi.org/10.3390/rs17152710

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Spatio-Temporal Characteristics of the Morphological Development of Gully Erosion on the Chinese Loess Plateau

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