Under the background of the “Grain for Green” program to control severe soil loss from human activities

the soil erosion and sediment yield were estimated based on the sediment delivery distributed model (SEDD) and the revised universal soil loss equation (RUSLE) in the upper reaches of the Beiluo River on China’s Loess Plateau. The model was used to simulated the spatial vatiations of soil erosion intensity and sediment yield in 1990

2000 and 2010. The results show that the average soil erosion modulus were 18 189.72 t/(km2·a)，7 408.93 t/(km2·a) and 2 857.76 t/(km2·a)

respectively

and the average annual sediment yield were 14 093.31 t/(km2·a)

5 997.65 t/(km2·a) and 2 394.37 t/(km2·a)

respectively in 1990

2000 and 2010. Besides

the average soil erosion modulus gradually decreased with the increasing vegetation coverage. The results also showed that both the soil erosion modulus and sediment yield were the highest in the altitude of 1 475～1 575 m. The average soil erosion modulus gradually increased with the increasing slope gradient

and with 75% of soil erosion was ascribed to the region with slope ＞15°. Moreover

the ranking of the average soil erosion modulus from high to low was: sunny slope＞half-sunny slope＞half-shady slope＞shady slope. This results provide an useful reference for the rational utilization of water and soil?resources and offer a technical basis for using RUSLE to estimate the soil erosion on the Loess Plateau of China.