A new method to determine the freeze-thaw erosion

Freeze-thaw erosion is the third largest soil erosion type after water erosion and wind erosion, which is a serious threat to agricultural land and various buildings, especially for water projects. In this paper, a new method based on the passive microwave remote sensing technique was proposed to classify and assess the freeze-thaw erosion. The core of this new method is at two important indices: the freeze-thaw cycling days per year, and the phase transition water content per day. The first index can be used to determine the freeze-thaw erosion region and the second index can be used to evaluate the degree of freeze-thaw erosion. The application of this new method in China shows good result. It indicates that the freeze-thaw erosion regions in China are mainly distributed in Tibet, Mongolia and the province of Qinghai, Xinjiang, Gansu, Sichuan and Heilongjiang. Furthermore, the comparably serious freeze-thaw erosion region is located in Tibet Plateau.