The influence of geo-environmental factors on spoon gullies on the Loess Plateau of China

Evaluating the influence of geo-environmental factors on spatial distribution of gullies not only provide insights for understanding the formation and evolution of gully landforms but also have significant implications for soil erosion management. Spoon gullies are widespread discontinuous gullies on the Loess Plateau of China, while the interaction mechanism between spoon gullies and geo-environmental factors is still unclear. Using Geodetector method, this article explored the relationship between spoon gullies and geo-enviromental factors. Spoon gullies were susceptive to precipitation, NDVI, loess thickness, land use type, and soil texture. However, only gully density, precipitation, and NDVI showed relative strong explanatory power to spoon gullies in single factor detection. Moreover, the influence of two combined factors has increased significantly greater than that of a single factor. Gully density combined with other geo-environment factors provides a better perspective to explain the spatial distribution characteristics of spoon gullies.