A dataset of road network in the critical zone of the tableland area on the Loess Plateau from 1975 to 2020

In the Loess Plateau, the traffic network is an important factor affecting the process of human activities in the critical zone. It usually accelerates soil erosion and material migration in the critical zone of the loess with the rainstorm. The Dongzhi loess tableland (35°15'23"-36°04'20"N, 107°26'47"-107°57'51"E) is the largest complete tableland on the Chinese Loess Plateau. With the rapid development of urbanization, road construction on the Dongzhi tableland has been booming. The expansion of road networks has an important impact on the study of landscape ecology and soil erosion. In this study, based on multi-source data, including historical documents, field surveys, and OSM data, ArcGIS software was applied to interpret and vector the road network data in the Dongzhi tableland between 1975 and 2020, combined with the Google image. This dataset can provide a strong data basis to carry out research on the study of road network expansion and its impacts on landscape patterns and soil erosion on the Dongzhi tableland.