In order to explore the relationships between soil splash erosion and water repellency

three types of soils (yellow cinnamon soil

brown-red soil

latosolic red soil) under different land uses (cultivated land

forest land

waste land) were selected to investigate the variations of soil water repellency (SWR) and its effect on soil splash erosion. Main results are shown as follows: (1) The SWR was the lowest for the arable soil among the studied three land uses

and it was higher in the surface soil layers than in the subsurface. Among all test soils

the SWR was largest for the cinnamon soil (13.15 sec). The SWR was significantly affected by soil mechanical composition and free iron aluminum oxides (R2 < -0.40

p < 0.01). (2) Soil splash erosion rate generally increased initially

and then decreased. The relationship between the cumulative splash amount and rainfall duration could be well fitted by the logarithmic function model. (3) The SWR had a significant positive effect on splash erosion under a certain range of rain intensity

also showing a logarithmic function (R2 ≥ 0.90

p < 0.01). These findings could provide theoretical reference basis for rainfall erosion mechanism research and erosion process model.