Wind erosion is a significant environmental challenge in arid and semi-arid regions, particularly where soil salinity and water scarcity limit the effectiveness of traditional control methods. Establishing living windbreaks for dust suppression is not cost-effective in these water-scarce and drought-prone areas due to their high irrigation requirements. This study introduces an innovative approach in which a plant species initially functions as a living windbreak. After reaching its maximum height, irrigation is halted, allowing the plants to transition into non-living windbreaks. Kochia scoparia L. Schrad was identified as a suitable species for windbreaks on highly saline land. In this research, seeds were sown in five rows using a strip planting method oriented against the prevailing wind direction, with 3 meters between rows and each strip extending 7 meters.Once the plants reached full growth, they were dried to serve as non-living windbreaks. Soil erosion and sedimentation rates were measured using sediment traps placed at the start of the rows and between rows; the collected data were analyzed. For greater accuracy, the same method was also conducted in a laboratory and within a wind tunnel. Wind speed at the windbreak location decreased from 17.8 m/s to 8.17 m/s, demonstrating the effectiveness of plant-based windbreaks in reducing wind speed. Wind erosion significantly decreased, with dust accumulation dropping from 1,464 g in the control to 808.2 g in the fifth row of windbreaks. These findings support using Kochia scoparia as an effective dual-purpose solution for sustainable wind erosion control in arid regions.
Hajehforooshnia et al. (Mon,) studied this question.