Views: 0 Author: Site Editor Publish Time: 2025-04-16 Origin: Site
Prevention and Control of Soil Erosion
After large-scale development in extensive mountainous areas and mining areas, bare slopes frequently appear, significantly increasing the risk of soil erosion. Take the mining areas in the Appalachian Mountains in the United States as an example. Large-scale open-pit mining has left the slopes loose. During the rainy season, a large amount of sediment rushes into the surrounding water systems with surface runoff, causing river silting and disorder in the aquatic ecosystem. However, after slope greening, the roots of vegetation crisscross and penetrate deep into the soil, remarkably enhancing the soil's cohesion, reducing the velocity of surface runoff, and intercepting sediment. Experiments show that on slopes with a herbaceous vegetation coverage of over 60%, the soil erosion amount is reduced by more than 80% compared to bare slopes. It is like putting on a sturdy armor for the land, safeguarding soil resources.
Restoration of Biodiversity
Some slopes along highways in the Alps in Europe were initially ecologically barren. After greening and the introduction of native plant communities, they have provided foraging, inhabitation, and breeding places for insects, birds, and small mammals. The population of rare butterfly species has been increasing year by year in the slope areas after greening, and many migratory birds have also included this area as a stopover point on their migration routes, forming a virtuous cycle of the ecological chain and helping to revive the regional biodiversity, bringing back the vitality of nature.
Beautification of the Urban Interface
In metropolises such as New York and Tokyo, highways and railways pass through the urban core, and the greening of the slopes on both sides has become a showcase window for the urban image. Along the elevated railway slopes in Tokyo, a combination of colorful flowers and well-arranged shrubs is used to create a "green corridor" with beautiful scenery in all seasons. This relieves the visual fatigue of citizens during their commute and enhances the overall "appearance" of the city, injecting natural vitality into the concrete jungle.
Empowering the Attraction of Tourist Destinations
In tourist resorts along the Mediterranean coast, such as the island of Santorini in Greece, the slopes along the coastal highways are skillfully integrated with local characteristic plants and landscape features, forming a beautiful contrast with the blue sea and white buildings. When tourists stroll through these areas, they can enjoy different scenery at every step. The slope greening is not only a background but also an organic part of the tourist experience, enhancing the unique charm of the destination and attracting tourists from all over the world.
High Initial Investment
The high-order aggregate soil spraying technology in Japan can achieve a high standard of ecological restoration, but its material costs are extremely high. The procurement costs of special soil, long-acting water-retaining agents, high-quality seeds, and other raw materials are substantial. Moreover, the spraying equipment is sophisticated and complex, and the costs of leasing and maintenance are high. In addition, professional construction teams need to operate precisely, and the labor costs are also significant. This makes it difficult for small and medium-sized projects to proceed due to financial constraints.
Continuous Later-stage Expenditure
After spraying herbaceous vegetation for slope greening in some regions of the United States, regular irrigation, fertilization, weeding, and pruning are required to maintain the healthy growth of the vegetation. In the arid southwestern region, the cost of irrigation water has soared. Frequent fertilization and weeding consume a large amount of labor, and herbaceous vegetation is prone to degradation, requiring periodic replanting. Over the years, the later-stage maintenance costs far exceed the initial construction investment, becoming a "burden" for the long-term operation of the project.
Dilemmas in Arid Regions
In arid regions such as the Middle East and the desert margins in the southwestern United States, slope greening faces the severe challenge of extreme water shortage. Conventional greening plants are difficult to survive, and the selection of drought-resistant varieties is limited. Even if drought-resistant plants such as cacti are selected, their initial rooting still requires a certain level of soil humidity. However, the limited precipitation in these areas is difficult to be retained in the slope soil, resulting in a low survival rate of plants and making it difficult to achieve the expected greening effect. The path to ecological restoration is full of obstacles.
Constraints in Alpine Regions
In alpine regions such as the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe and northern Canada, low temperatures, frozen soil, and strong winds have become the "stumbling blocks" for slope greening. Low temperatures inhibit the growth and metabolism of plants, frozen soil hinders the rooting of roots, and strong winds are likely to cause vegetation to fall or even be uprooted. The introduced cold-resistant plants grow slowly, the greening cycle is long, and the winter protection measures are complex, requiring a large amount of thermal insulation materials and labor, increasing the difficulty of project implementation.
The Problem of Vegetation Degradation
For the slopes where herbaceous vegetation was sprayed in the early stage in the United States, due to factors such as single grass species and the decline of soil fertility, the vegetation coverage rate has sharply decreased after 2-3 years, and phenomena such as bald patches and degradation have occurred. The lack of a stable plant community structure with a reasonable combination of trees, shrubs, and herbs makes the slope ecosystem fragile and vulnerable to the invasion of pests and diseases. Frequent replanting and pest control are required, consuming a large amount of resources but being difficult to completely solve the problem.
Lack of Intelligent Monitoring
Most slope greening projects lack a real-time intelligent monitoring system and are unable to accurately grasp the soil moisture, nutrients, and the growth status of vegetation. Maintenance personnel work based on experience and are difficult to detect potential problems in a timely manner. For example, irrigation is only initiated when the soil water shortage has reached the critical value for plant growth, missing the best opportunity and affecting the health of the vegetation and reducing the durability of the greening effect.
Doubts about Environmental Protection
The Hongtu product contains high-polymer fiber components, which have a long and uncertain degradation period in the natural environment. Long-term retention on the slope may affect the soil's air permeability and water permeability and hinder the construction of the soil microbial community, posing a potential threat to the delicate balance of the ecosystem and contradicting the strict environmental protection concepts.
Difficulties in the Initial Stage of Plant Growth
During the plant rooting stage, the relatively compact structure of the Hongtu product is not friendly to herbaceous plants with slender and tender roots. The root extension is hindered, and the efficiency of water and nutrient absorption is low, resulting in slow initial growth of plants and fluctuations in the survival rate, affecting the timeliness of greening and being difficult to meet the needs of rapid ecological restoration.
Shortcomings of Supporting Facilities
The Hongtu product does not integrate intelligent supporting facilities such as automatic irrigation and automatic nutrient supplementation. When applied to large-area slopes, it is difficult to achieve uniform coverage of artificial irrigation and fertilization. This not only consumes a large amount of labor but also easily causes uneven growth of plants on the slope due to operational differences, reducing the overall landscape coordination.
Challenges to the Load-bearing Limit
In the face of extreme combined weather conditions such as strong winds and heavy rains, the vertical greening planting soil plate has difficulty in bearing large and deep-rooted plants. Although the structure of the plate has a certain strength, during the later stage of root growth, as the pulling force increases, it may cause deformation and even detachment of the plate, endangering the safety of the slope. This hidden danger is particularly serious in the southeastern coastal areas of the United States where hurricanes frequently occur and the coastal areas of Japan where typhoons often strike.
Doubts about Long-term Stability
With the passage of time, under the influence of outdoor sunlight, rain, and temperature changes, the material of the plate will age, and the connection parts will loosen. Its water and fertilizer retention performance will decline, affecting the creation of a stable environment required for the continuous growth of plants. After 5-10 years, large-scale replacement and maintenance may be required, increasing the long-term operation cost.
