Identification of soil erosion sensitive areas based on improved stability mapping method and the relative contributions of climate change and human activities

• Applied STD method to identify sensitivity areas to soil erosion. • Conducted trend and residual analysis to examine soil erosion driving factors. • The influence of human activities on erosion was more significant than climate change. • Climate change and human activities drove soil erosion in sensitive areas. • Human and climate pressures increased erosion in vulnerable regions. Rapid and accurate identification of soil erosion-sensitive regions, along with assessing the quantitative effects of climate change and human activities on their dynamic evolution, is essential for formulating effective zonal prevention measures and achieving sustainable soil resource utilization. Traditional methods for evaluating soil erosion sensitivity were often based on static data and failed to capture the dynamic erosion process, making it difficult to accurately reflect soil erosion sensitivity. Therefore, this study introduced an improved Stable Mapping Method (STD) using Yunnan Province as the study area. It identified erosion-sensitive areas based on the spatiotemporal characteristics of erosion and employed trend analysis and multiple regression residual analysis to reveal the differences in soil erosion responses to climate change and human activities in various sensitive areas. The study indicated that: 1) Nearly 30 % of areas in Yunnan Province exhibited varying degrees of sensitivity to soil erosion. Among these, high-sensitivity zones were primarily concentrated in the downstream areas of the six major basins, indicating that human activities, such as excessive development and construction, may be significant factors contributing to the exacerbation of soil erosion. 2) The dominant factor in changes to soil erosion was the combined impact of climate change and human activities. With growing sensitivity, there was a noticeable increase in the area of regions where erosion was worsened by both of these influences. 3) The effects of human activities and climate change showed substantial variation among areas with different sensitivity levels, with the disparity becoming more evident as sensitivity increased. Overall, the impact of human activities on soil erosion was more pronounced than that of climate change. The research demonstrates the varying effects and interplay between climate change and human activities on soil erosion across different vulnerable regions, laying the groundwork for surveillance, preemptive alerts, hazard mitigation, and localized safeguards.