Correlations Between Soil Multifractal Features and Erodibility in Utility-Scale Photovoltaic Plants in a Desert Steppe

Assessing the impacts of large-scale photovoltaic plants on soil properties is critical for sustainable land management in arid regions. This study examined a 50 MWp utility-scale PV facility in Siziwangqi, Inner Mongolia, northern China, a cold semi-arid desert steppe where renewable-energy development overlaps with fragile wind-eroded ecosystems. A spatially resolved sampling design contrasted soils at key micro-positions relative to the panels, namely Front, Under, and Behind, with adjacent natural Controls. By integrating laser diffraction analysis, multifractal modeling, and the EPIC erodibility equation, we evaluated soil particle-size probability redistribution and EPIC-estimated intrinsic erodibility. Compared with the silt-dominated surface soil of the natural steppe, soils within the photovoltaic plant exhibited fine-particle retention and lower information and correlation dimensions (D1 and D2), indicating stronger local clustering and a less even particle-size probability distribution. The EPIC-estimated erodibility factor decreased from 0.452 in the Control to approximately 0.361 in the PV micro-locations. These associations should be interpreted as texture- and SOC-based model estimates rather than direct measurements of wind erosion. Overall, multifractal parameters provide complementary proxy descriptors for detecting PV-induced particle sorting and potential changes in intrinsic soil erodibility, underscoring the need for field validation and adaptive management in dryland PV landscapes. These findings provide physical soil evidence for evaluating the environmental sustainability of dryland PV development and for supporting adaptive land management in solar farms.