One of the core problems in soil erosion research is the estimation of soil erosion. It is a feasible method and technical approach to estimate soil erosion in Loess Plateau region by using USLE model, GIS and RS technology and using DEM data, meteorological data and land-use type data. With the support of GIS and RS technology, the USLE factors and soil erosion in Loess Plateau region were estimated, and the soil erosion intensity was classified according to the Chinese soil erosion intensity classification standard. The results can provide reference for the development of soil erosion control measures in the Loess Plateau.

In this study, optical and microwave satellite observations are integrated to estimate soil moisture at the same spatial resolution as the optical sensors (5km here) and applied for drought analysis in the continental United States. A new refined model is proposed to include auxiliary data like soil texture, topography, surface types, accumulated precipitation, in addition to Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and Land Surface Temperature (LST) used in the traditional universal triangle method. It is found the new proposed soil moisture model using accumulated precipitation demonstrated close agreements with the U.S. Drought Monitor (USDM) spatial patterns. Currently, the USDM is providing a weekly map. Recently, “flash” drought concept appears. To obtain drought map on daily basis, LST is derived from microwave observations and downscaled to the same resolution as the thermal infrared LST product and used to fill the gaps due to clouds in optical LST data. With the integrated daily LST available under nearly all weather conditions, daily soil moisture can be estimated at relatively higher spatial resolution than those traditionally derived from passive microwave sensors, thus drought maps based on soil moisture anomalies can be obtained on daily basis and made the flash drought analysis and monitoring become possible.

Quartz sand was used as bed material in a small fluidized bed reactor with 1 kg/h feed. Corn straw powder with particle size of 20–40 mesh, 40–60 mesh, 60–80 mesh and 80–120 mesh was used as raw material for rapid pyrolysis at reaction temperatures of 400 °C, 450 °C, 500 °C and 550 °C. The bio-oil obtained after liquefaction of pyrolysis gas was analyzed. The variation trend of bio-oil composition in pyrolysis of corn straw powder with different reaction temperatures and raw material sizes was compared. The results show that: (1) the content of 3-hydroxyl-2-phenyl-2-acrylic acid in bio-oil increases with the decrease of raw material particle size, but it is less at 450 °C; (2) with the increase of reaction temperature, the content of hydroxyacetaldehyde in bio-oil increases at first and then decreases: the content of hydroxyacetaldehyde in bio-oil is the highest at 500 °C when the particle size is 20–40 mesh, and the highest at 450 °C with the other three particle sizes. Compared with other particle sizes, raw material with the particle size of 60–80 mesh is not conducive to the formation of aldehyde compounds; (3) the reaction temperature of 500 °C and the particle size of 60–80 mesh of raw materials are more conducive to the formation of phenolic compounds in bio-oil; (4) the ester compounds with particle size of 20–40 mesh in bio-oil is 20% higher than that of other particle sizes; (5) the reaction temperature and the particle size of raw materials had no significant effect on the formation of ketones, alcohols and alkane compounds in bio-oils.

Soil and groundwater remediation act has been enacted and executed since year 2000 in Taiwan.  It has been ten good years till today where lots of remediation techniques progressively employed to improve Taiwan soil and groundwater resource quality.  Regulatory agencies, academia, remediation consulting firms, on-site professional engineers all have contribute the proud ten years in terms of soil and groundwater clean-up contribution.  However, some of technologies were un-environmental friendly even detrimental and damage to Taiwan precious soil and groundwater resources.  In Article one of the current Taiwan soil and groundwater Act, it clearly stated that soil is a precious nature resources.  Soil definitely is not a waste, shame on us most of current most commonly employed remediation are unlawful and merely aiming to save time and money consideration without any care to our land.  Dig-and-dump and soil acid washing are damaged employed in almost every single local environment agency soil clean-up project.  Lot of money, effort and time has been spent during past ten years.  Most of the spending is not improving soil quality using Green approach.

Soil and groundwater remediation Act was enacted in year 2000. More than ten years has already passed,  Monitoring project has been completed,pollution status has been defined,contaminated sites depollution have been launched,a great progress has been made. This paper majorly to depict the extensive farmland soil qauality monittoring which is unpredent in Taiwan and believe has never been done worldwide.

This project was initiated from February 8^th, 2002 to August 8^th, 2002. The project tasks including digitalization of cadastre, farmland listing, basic information collecting, field investigation, sampling & analysis planning, field sampling, soil sample analysis, data evaluation, suggestion of contaminated farmland control, and analysis of potential pollution sources and transfer routes.

2,251 soil samples,had been sampled from Chang-Hwa County, Yun-Lin County, Nan-Tao County, and Chia-Yi City, and been analyzed in this project. 44% of these samples concentration exceed the soil pollution control standard (Table 1), including 492 farmlands (125.65 ha registered) with total contaminated farming area of 108.38 ha in Chang-Hwa, and 6 farmlands (0.39 ha registered) with total contaminated farming area of 0.39 ha in Nan-Tao County. However, the concentration of samples from Ynu-Lin County and Chia-Yi City do not exceed the soil pollution control standard.

To coordinate with the investigation results of the relative project regarding to water and sediment quality of irrigation channels in Chang-Hwa area, the pollution sources are preliminary concluded to be the irrigation channels surrounding the farmlands in Chang-Hwa area. As to the Nan-Tao County, the abandoned brick furnace plants neighboring the farmland are suspected to be the pollution sources.

The results show that the soil of the investigation area in Chang-Hwa County is the most polluted. Base on the Geostatistics study and the distribution of the irrigation channels; the area neighboring the investigated farmland in this project is suspected being polluted. For the farmlands exceeding soil control standard, Geostatistics method is suggested to coordinate with the information of the irrigation system to clarify the contaminated area so as to be the basis of land control and remediation work. As to the farmlands, not being investigated in this project but with high pollution potential according to the Geostatistics study, detail investigations are suggested. Regarding to soil pollution remediation, it is suggested to coordinate with the effluent control and irrigation channel remediation to achieve an all-out success.

Afforestation is a main tool for preventing desertification and soil erosion in arid and semiarid regions of Iran. Large-scale afforestation, however, has poorly understood consequences for the future ecosystems in the term of ecosystems protection. The objective of the present study is to identify changes in soil properties following different intervals of planting of Ailanthus altissima (tree of heaven) in semiarid afforestation of Iran (Chitgar Forest Park, Tehran). For this purpose, sand, silt and clay ratios, bulk density, soil moisture, pH, electrical conductivity, phosphorus, potassium, magnesium, calcium, sodium, total soil N, and total carbon was measured. Our study highlighted the potential of the invasive trees by A. altissima, to alter soil properties along chronosequence. Almost all soil quality attributes showed a declining trend with stand age. A continuous decline in soil quality indicated that the present land management may not be sustainable. Therefore, an improved management practice is imperative to sustain soil quality and maintain long-term productivity of plantation forests. Thinning activity will be required to reduce the number of trees competing for the same nutrients especially in a older stand to protect forest soils.