Distribution and land use characteristics of alluvial fans in the Lhasa River Basin, Tibet

doi:10.1007/s11442-021-1905-1

Abstract

Abstract:

In Lhasa River Basin (LRB), land suitable for settlement or living is experiencing a shortage of resources. Alluvial fans have the potential to alleviate this problem. However, basic information, such as the distribution and land use types of alluvial fans, is rarely studied. In this study, Google Earth, ArcGIS and visual interpretation were used to obtain the outlines, areas, quantities and distribution of alluvial fans. Meanwhile, to show the utilisation potential of alluvial fans, we analysed the land use, their distance from the roads, places (town and village) and rivers. The results showed 826 alluvial fans exist in LRB, with a total area of 1166.03 km². The number of alluvial fans with areas between 0.1 and 1 km² is 517, accounting for 62.59% of the total number of alluvial fans. Grassland is the dominant land use type, accounting for 68.70% of the total area of alluvial fans. The cropland area accounted for 2.16% of alluvial fans and accounted for 18.98% of the total cropland area in LRB. Exactly 93.70%, 53.63% and 61.86% of the total number of alluvial fans were located within 5 km from the tertiary road, village, and river, respectively. To sum up, our survey results showed that alluvial fans are important land resources in LRB and may have huge utilisation potential.

Key words: alluvial fan, Lhasa River Basin, distribution, land use, Tibet

CHEN Tongde, JIAO Juying, CHEN Yixian, LIN Hong, WANG Haolin, BAI Leichao. Distribution and land use characteristics of alluvial fans in the Lhasa River Basin, Tibet[J].Journal of Geographical Sciences, 2021, 31(10): 1437-1452.

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County	Quantity (No.)	Area (km²)	County	Quantity (No.)	Area (km²)
Lhundup	174	191.74	Taktse	87	61.32
Medro Gongkar	156	89.95	Seni	47	94.90
Chali	122	60.42	Chenguan	36	25.98
Tolung Dechen	90	94.61	Chushur	26	61.91
Dumshung	88	485.20

County	First size		Second size		Third size		Fourth size
County	Quantity (No.)	Area (km²)	Quantity (No.)	Area (km²)	Quantity (No.)	Area (km²)	Quantity (No.)	Area (km²)
Medro Gongkar	27	2.12	100	33.41	29	54.42	0	0.00
Chali	23	1.81	88	34.25	23	57.62	0	0.00
Lhundup	11	0.85	113	45.89	48	117.73	2	27.27
Taktse	10	0.79	59	22.58	34	107.22	0	0.00
Seni	6	0.44	40	16.08	29	54.42	4	48.61
Dumshung	4	0.29	40	16.08	34	107.22	10	361.61
Tolung Dechen	3	0.22	63	25.63	29	54.42	1	11.15
Chenguan	2	0.17	59	22.58	23	57.62	0	0.00
Chushur	1	0.07	40	16.08	17	58.85	0	0.00

Land use types	R_laf (%)	R_llrb (%)	Land use types	R_laf (%)	R_llrb (%)
Grassland	68.70	3.97	Wetland	0.13	0.29
Bare land	24.10	2.86	Shrubland	0.03	0.16
Impervious area	4.52	9.18	Forest	1.76×10^-3	0.01
Cropland	2.16	18.98	Snow/Ice	5.86×10^-5	6.39×10^-6
Water	0.37	0.59

Types	Quantity (No.)	Area (km²)	Types	Quantity (No.)	Area (km²)
A_50%grassland	665	903.17	A_50%grassland A_30%shrubland	1	0.06
A_{50%bare land}	74	52.59	A_{50%impervious area} A_30%garssland	6	2.35
A_{50%impervious area}	22	10.98	A_{50%impervious area} A_{30%bare land}	4	1.47
A_50%grassland A_{30%bare land}	38	109.03	A_{50%bare land} A_30%grassland	15	13.01
A_50%grassland A_{30%impervious area}	8	5.10	A_{50%bare land} A_{30%impervious area}	6	3.58
A_50%grassland A_{30%water body}	1	1.50	A_<50%	64	91.56