The spatial distribution of different land use types on the Loess Plateau in 2005 are shown in Fig. 4, and the areas of these land uses and average yields of soil loss from them are given in Table 3.
The highest rate of soil erosion was for slope cropland, which had a similar loss to that of bare soil, and the lowest loss was for cropland with flat topography.
Additionally, slope cropland and bare soil had higher variations than flat cropland.
Assuming cover from woody vegetation and grass was mostly on slope land, forest, shrub and
dense grassland reduced soil loss from slope land more than woods and moderate and sparse grass compared with the soil loss from slope land that was cropped.