长期以来,黄土高原的空间范围缺乏明确的定论。争论的焦点反映出不同学者对自然地理现象空间分布过渡性的认识和处理的差异。本文从黄土、黄土分布区、黄土高原及其毗邻的黄土分布区、黄土高原、典型黄土地貌区等几个不同层次的概念出发,探讨了划分黄土高原的客观标准,并根据野外考察和航卫片判读确定了黄土高原的空间范围。

The Loess Plateau is a unique physico-geographic unit in China. There are some divergence of concept about it's boundary. This paper points out, that such divergence is due to different understanding of natural characteristics of the regions which are the transition from the Loess Plateau to surrounding natural regions.In the paper, several different concepts are reviewed, such as the Loess, the distributional region of the Loess, the Loess Plateau and the neighbouring distributional region of the Loess, the Loess Plateau, and the typical loess geomorphological region; all these concepts should not be confused. Finally, criteria and index for dividing the boundary of the Loess Plateau are discussed. Based on field investigation and landsat image interpretation, the boundary of the Loess Plateau is delimited.