[1]ZHOU Hongyi,LI Huixia,YE Qi,et al.Simulation of Morphological Development of Soil Cracks in the Collapsing Hill Region of Southern China[J].Research of Soil and Water Conservation,2016,23(01):338-342.
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Research of Soil and Water Conservation[ISSN 1005-3409/CN 61-1272/P] Volume:
23
Number of periods:
2016 01
Page number:
338-342
Column:
Public date:
2016-02-28
- Title:
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Simulation of Morphological Development of Soil Cracks in the Collapsing Hill Region of Southern China
- Author(s):
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ZHOU Hongyi, LI Huixia, YE Qi, WU Guowei
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Department of Spatial Information and Resources or Environment, Foshan University, Foshan, Guangdong 528000, China
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- Keywords:
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granite red soil region of Southern China; collapsing hill; soil cracks; simulation experiment
- CLC:
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S152.7
- DOI:
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- Abstract:
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The collapsing hill is a specific form of soil erosion in the granite red soil region of South China,especially in Guangdong Province.It is one of the most important indications of serious soil erosion. We reported regular changes on surface morphology of soil cracks with decreasing water in three different parts of soil body, the top of collapsing wall (B1), the middle of collapsing wall (B2), the bottom of collapsing wall (B3) through simulation experiments. In this study, we took overhead photos of the sample frame using a digital camera. The images were further processed by ArcGIS to quantificationally analyze the statistical law of crack morphology. Meanwhile, a dynamic description method based on normal distribution was proposed to depict the morphology of shrinkage cracks on soil surface. It showed that crack area density, length density, and connectivity index all increased with decrease of moisture content and remained stable after reaching their maximums, but the time to reach their maximums and the soil moisture after reaching their maximums varied in different parts of soil body. Cracks were first developed in B1 speciment, and then in B2, and finally in B3, and the same order was found in reaching their stability. Crack area density of B1 specimen was the biggest compared with those of B2 and B3 specimen throughout the drying process. The difference in crack development, the time to reach stability, and soil moisture content will result in uneven load-carrying in different parts of soil body in collapsing wall, and finally result in collapsing hill in rainy season.