Multiscale spatiotemporal dynamics of water erosion in the Three Gorges Reservoir area over the past 20 years

To combat soil erosion in the Three Gorges Reservoir Area of Chongqing, this research calculated the soil erosion amount in the region over the past 20 years by the Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE) model and conducted multiscale spatiotemporal analysis. The findings suggest that: 1) The spatial pattern of water erosion in the study area has remained consistent over the past two decades, with the Yunyang, Kaizhou, and Wanzhou districts being the most severely affected; these areas require top-priority remediation. 2) Erosion characteristics show no obvious pattern in temporal distribution, and changes in erosion are mainly concentrated between mild and micro erosion levels. 3) Rainfall serves as the dominant driver of soil erosion dynamics across the entire Three Gorges Reservoir Basin, whereas the influence of the vegetation cover pattern with a higher degree of fragmentation is relatively weak.