Abstract:

Restricted heavily by the geological background, the improper human land-use activities easily resulted in rocky desertification in the karst regions of southwest China with deficient surface soil and water resources and high habitat heterogeneity, and thus made these regions become the key and difficult areas in China for practicing ecological management and poverty alleviation. Based on the brief introductions of soil-rock environmental characteristics, the hydrological and soil-erosion processes and their laws, and the current conditions of vegetation restoration and control countermeasures, were analyzed in details. Furthermore, the future research prospects were discussed. In order to promote the regional ecological and socioeconomic sustainable development of the karst regions of southwest China, vegetation restoration should be combined with the ecological management and the improvement of people’s livelihood based on intensive study on soil and water processes.