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The distribution and land use characteristics of alluvial fans in Lhasa River Basin in Tibet
  • +3
  • Tongde Chen,
  • Ju-Ying Jiao,
  • Yixian Chen,
  • Hong Lin,
  • Haoli Wang,
  • Leichao Bai
Tongde Chen
Northwest A&F University

Corresponding Author:[email protected]

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Ju-Ying Jiao
Northwest A & F University
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Yixian Chen
Institute of Soil and Water Conservation Chinese Academy of Sciences and Ministry of Water Resources
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Hong Lin
Northwest A&F University
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Haoli Wang
Northwest A&F University
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Leichao Bai
Northwest A&F University
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Abstract

The land that is suitable for settlement or live is shortage in Lhasa River Basin (LRB). Alluvial fan is a candidate resource to suitable land in this situation. However, the basic information of alluvial fans, for example its distribution and land-use types, is little known. In this study, Google earth, ArcGIS and visual interpretation were used to get the outlines, areas, quantity and distribution of alluvial fans. Meanwhile, the land use, the distance from alluvial fans to roads, places (town and village) and rivers (including stream) are analyzed. The results show that there are 826 alluvial fans in LRB and the total area is 1166.03 km². The quantity of alluvial fans with area between 0.1 km2 and 1 km2 is 517, which is dominated in all. The quantity of alluvial fans is concentrated in the east of LRB, but that area is mainly distributed in the west. The area of Grassland is the largest in all land use types which is account for 68.70% of alluvial fans. Although cropland area is accounted by 2.16% of alluvial fans, it is accounted by 18.98% of the LRB’s cropland area. The quantity of alluvial fans within in 5km distance to tertiary road, village, and river (including stream) are accounted of 93.70%, 53.63% and 77.38% respectively. Therefore, alluvial fans have played an import role in LRB, and may have huge utilization potential in the future.
Oct 2021Published in Journal of Geographical Sciences volume 31 issue 10 on pages 1437-1452. 10.1007/s11442-021-1905-1