44 CHAPTER 2 Sustainability and Human Values
Jim Richardson/NG Image Collection
Tree seedlings have been planted in small earthworks as part of a plan to reduce erosion and restore the hills in the Loess Plateau.
Global
LocatorCHINANG MapsLoess is easily eroded by wind and water, particularly
when vegetation is removed from the surface. The Loess
Plateau is semiarid, so water is often in short supply. Lack
of water, in combination with centuries of deforestation
and overgrazing, turned much of the Loess Plateau into a
nonproductive desert.
In 1994 the Loess Plateau Watershed Rehabilitation
Project was established to reclaim the land from encroaching
desert. Portions of the Loess Plateau were reforested
(see photograph). Chinese people living in the area were
educated about the causes of land degradation and
encouraged to keep their livestock in pens instead of
allowing the animals to roam freely and overgraze the land.
As portions of the Loess Plateau have slowly recovered,
it is turning green again, and less silt is washing into the
Yellow River.The Loess Plateau in China
The Loess Plateau covers about 640,000 km^2 (247,000 mi^2 ) in east-
central China. This area is named for loess, the fine-grained, silty
soil deposited there by windstorms following the retreat of ice age
glaciers. (Loess, pronounced “luss” in the United States, is derived
from a German word meaning “loose.”) Loess is a fine-grained
sedimentary deposit found in many areas of the world. However, it
is thickest and most extensive in China. The Loess Plateau covers
much of the North China Plain and, to the west, the hilly basin of
the Yellow River. It averages 75 m (250 ft) thick.
The loess, which is thick and fertile, was at one time an
important resource for China. It provided a fertile agricultural soil
that fed millions of people. Chinese people also dug homes in
the loess; these homes were cool in summer and warm in winter,
although they were prone to collapse from earthquakes.
CASE STUDY ✓✓THE PLANNER