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Topic · Soil Science

Soil erosion and sediment transport

Soil erosion and sediment transport is a research topic within Soil Science. Science Explorer counts 41k research works in it since 1950. 10.2% of them reached the world's top 10% most cited for their field and year.

This cluster of papers focuses on the impact of soil erosion on agricultural sustainability, land use change, sediment transport models, ecohydrological processes, soil degradation, runoff and erosion, the global carbon budget, suspended sediments, and gully erosion. It addresses the challenges and implications of soil erosion for environmental change and human security in various regions around the world.

  • Soil Erosion
  • Agricultural Sustainability
  • Land Use Change
  • Sediment Transport Models
  • Ecohydrological Processes
  • Soil Degradation
  • Runoff and Erosion
  • Global Carbon Budget
  • Suspended Sediments
  • Gully Erosion
Research works
41k
fractional, since 1950
In the world top 10%
4.2k
per year above
Top-10% rate
10.2%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Growth, 2018-21 → 2022-25
+5%
the tick is no change
Largest producer
China
44% of the 10 largest, 2022-now
Soil erosion and sediment transport

Which countries lead Soil erosion and sediment transport research?

By volume, China and the United States publish the most (2.6k and 814 works in 2022-now).

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 China 2.6k works
  2. 2 United States 814 works
  3. 3 India 631 works
  4. 4 Brazil 502 works
  5. 5 France 272 works
  6. 6 Italy 261 works
  7. 7 Ethiopia 238 works
  8. 8 Iran 215 works
  9. 9 Spain 206 works
  10. 10 United Kingdom 196 works

How concentrated that is

The same countries as shares of everything the list above accounts for. A node where two countries do two thirds of the work and one spread evenly across twelve read alike as a ranking and not at all alike here.

China: 44.1%United States: 13.6%India: 10.6%Brazil: 8.4%6 others listed: 23.2%44%largest
China2,635 · 44.1%United States814 · 13.6%India631 · 10.6%Brazil502 · 8.4%6 others listed1,387 · 23.2%

Shares of the rows listed above, not of the whole node.

Which institutions lead Soil erosion and sediment transport research?

By volume in 2022-now, Chinese Academy of Sciences publishes the most Soil erosion and sediment transport research, followed by Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique and Ministry of Water Resources of the People's Republic of China.

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 Chinese Academy of SciencesChina 404 works
  2. 2 Centre National de la Recherche ScientifiqueFrance 93 works
  3. 3 Ministry of Water Resources of the People's Republic of ChinaChina 91 works
  4. 4 Beijing Normal UniversityChina 79 works
  5. 5 Northwest A&F UniversityChina 74 works
  6. 6 University of Chinese Academy of SciencesChina 74 works
  7. 7 Indian Council of Agricultural ResearchIndia 57 works
  8. 8 United States Department of AgricultureUnited States 57 works
  9. 9 Beijing Forestry UniversityChina 50 works
  10. 10 Hohai UniversityChina 47 works

Who are the leading researchers in Soil erosion and sediment transport?

The most-cited researchers publishing on Soil erosion and sediment transport include George Davey Smith, Jun Wang and Mark A. Bradford.

  1. 1 George Davey Smith United Kingdom 435k citations
  2. 2 Jun Wang China 340k citations
  3. 3 Mark A. Bradford United States 268k citations
  4. 4 Philippe Ciais France 237k citations
  5. 5 Guangming Zeng China 204k citations
  6. 6 Carl Folke Sweden 182k citations
  7. 7 Stephen R. Carpenter United States 165k citations
  8. 8 Josep Peñuelas Spain 160k citations

Ranked by citations received across their whole record, among researchers with at least three works on this topic.

What are the most cited papers in Soil erosion and sediment transport?

The most cited paper in Soil erosion and sediment transport is "THE VERTICAL DISTRIBUTION OF SOIL ORGANIC CARBON AND ITS RELATION TO CLIMATE AND VEGETATION" (Esteban Gabriel Jobbagy, Robert B. Jackson, 2000), with 5,237 citations. Next come "Digital terrain modelling: A review of hydrological, geomorphological, and biological applications" (3,509) and "Dynamics of Fluids in Porous Media" (3,468).

Most cited papers
#PaperReleasedCitations
1 THE VERTICAL DISTRIBUTION OF SOIL ORGANIC CARBON AND ITS RELATION TO CLIMATE AND VEGETATION Esteban Gabriel Jobbagy, Robert B. Jackson · Ecological Applications Apr 2000 5,237
2 Digital terrain modelling: A review of hydrological, geomorphological, and biological applications Ian D. Moore, Rodger B. Grayson, Anthony Richard Ladson · Hydrological Processes 1991 3,509
3 Dynamics of Fluids in Porous Media Petrus A. C. Raats · Soil Science Society of America Journal Jul 1973 3,468
4 Environmental and Economic Costs of Soil Erosion and Conservation Benefits David Pimentel, Célia A. Harvey, Ida Aju Pradnja Resosudarmo et al. · Science 24 Feb 1995 2,880
5 The Ecology of Interfaces: Riparian Zones Robert J. Naiman, Henri Décamps · Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics Nov 1997 2,805
All 100 most cited papers, with filters and sorting

Where is Soil erosion and sediment transport research done?

The largest centres of Soil erosion and sediment transport research in 2022-now are Beijing (China), Nanjing (China), Wuhan (China) and Xi'an (China). Among places with at least 20 works in it, it is an unusually large share of all research in Yangling and Yangling.

Largest cities, 2022-now

  1. 1 BeijingChina 776 works
  2. 2 NanjingChina 134 works
  3. 3 WuhanChina 126 works
  4. 4 Xi'anChina 121 works
  5. 5 LanzhouChina 96 works
  6. 6 TehranIran 88 works
  7. 7 YanglingChina 79 works
  8. 8 ChengduChina 77 works
  9. 9 YanglingChina 74 works
  10. 10 ParisFrance 72 works

Where it is the local speciality

  1. YanglingCN · 78.6 works203×
  2. YanglingCN · 74.1 works22×
← less than its size predicts1×more →

Location quotient: how much more of its research is in Soil erosion and sediment transport than the world average.

See Soil erosion and sediment transport on the map

Where is the best place to study Soil erosion and sediment transport?

Among universities, judged by research, Northwest A&F University, Beijing Normal University and University of Chinese Academy of Sciences score highest, combining excellence, specialisation, size, growth and international reach. Research strength is one signal when choosing where to study; it does not measure teaching.

0%10%20%30%mean 21.41%fractional works in this field (log) →share of work in the world top 10% →Northwest A&F Univer…Huazhong Agricultura…Beijing Normal Unive…University of Chines…
above the meannear itbelow it

One dot per university in the first ten of the table below, at the default weights. The upper left is the interesting corner: small places doing unusually strong work.

Excellenceshare of its work in the world top 10%, 2022-now and all time averaged
40%
Specialisationhow much of its work is in this field, counted up to 10× the world share
10%
Sizeits output in this field, on a log scale
30%
Growthoutput growth, counted from -20% to +20%
10%
Internationalshare of its work with a co-author abroad
10%
Each slider sets a weight; the share it gets of the score is beside it.
#UniversityScoreTop 10%SpecialisationWorksGrowth
1Northwest A&F UniversityChina 91.827.2%24.9×74 +27.9%
2Beijing Normal UniversityChina 84.525.5%13.0×79 +3.9%
3University of Chinese Academy of SciencesChina 77.822.3%5.9×74 +5.6%
4Huazhong Agricultural UniversityChina 73.726.1%8.5×22 +15.2%
5Guizhou UniversityChina 69.423.8%5.6×22 +74.9%
6Beijing Forestry UniversityChina 67.416.9%22.8×50 +16.7%
7Addis Ababa UniversityEthiopia 66.615.2%13.2×24 +77.8%
8Guizhou Normal UniversityChina 65.322.8%28.3×22 +219.3%
9Hohai UniversityChina 62.613.4%10.5×47 +30.8%
10Southwest UniversityChina 62.320.9%6.3×26 +25.3%

Universities only. The score blends excellence (40%), size (30%), specialisation (10%), growth (10%), international reach (10%), 2022-now; growth compares 2018-21 with 2022-25 and counts up to +20%, since a jump from a small base is mostly noise.

Every institution in Soil erosion and sediment transport, country by country

Is Soil erosion and sediment transport research growing?

Output in 2022-2025 was 5% higher than in 2018-2021, peaking in 2021. The fastest-growing topics are Soil erosion and sediment transport.

still counting19801990200020102020
grewheldshrank

The same series as a ribbon: one cell per year, darker for more. The line above answers how much; this answers when.

Its share of all research

Growing output can still be a shrinking share: all of science grows. This is Soil erosion and sediment transport as a percentage of every work published that year, 0.037% in 2024.

still counting0.020%0.040%0.060%Soil erosion and sediment transport0.033% in 202519801990200020102020

Fractional works of Soil erosion and sediment transport over all fractional works that year. How the balance of science has shifted.

How much of it reaches the world top 10%

Year by year.

still counting5%10%15%Soil erosion and sediment transport10.0% in 2025200020102020

Of each year's works in it, the share that reached the world's 10% most cited for their field and year. A field is the world for its own topics, so there is no other line to hold it against.

Which topics inside it are moving

Growth and decline on one axis around a shared zero. Two lists side by side hide the thing that matters: whether the growth dwarfs the decline, or the other way round.

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