Abstract:

Being one of the four main plateaus in China, Loess Plateau is a unique geomorphologic unit. Its special landform plus the extraordinary erosion by modern external forces makes it a sample region in which human beings destruct natural environment and meanwhile seriously harmed by natural disasters. For this region, what geomorphologists and cartographers have long been used to describe its landform is not only indirect and unobvious, but also inaccurate, and sometimes incapable or inefficient. Therefore, the method we try to use for the landform of Loess Plateau, i.e., Geo-Info-TUPU, is very important and essential. This paper introduced the authors research work and initial achievements in the application of Geo-info-TUPU in Loess Plateau landform. After expounding its importance, the authors describe four issues in details, that is, at first, the method and steps of inducing & extracting Geo-info-TUPU for the landform by using current major GIS & RS software packages such as MGE and ERDAS; secondly, several key problems and points in the above procedure; thirdly, the examples of Loess Plateau's landform Info-TUPU in sample area, including six tables as shape table for single cross-ditch-units, shape table for combined cross-ditch-units vertical zone series table spatial pattern table for cross-ditch-units, spatial pattern table for ditches and valleys, as well as virtual combination table for landform units; at last, the application of landform Info-TUPU in the research work of soil erosion. The result shows that it plays an important role in our research on Loess Plateau soil erosion and geomorphologic mapping.

Key words: Loess Plateau, landforms, Information Tupu