Abstract: Soil and water loss has become a major global environment problem that has a severe impacts on human survival and sustainable development. To address this, Soil erosion process and control research has been put in the national basic research program (973) in 2006.. The project will focus on the process of soil erosion in four water-erosion regions namely, the gentle hilly black soil regions in northeast China, the Loess Plateau in northwest China, the red soil hilly region in south China and the purple-soil hills in southwest China. The project plans to address the following three problems: the formative process and driving mechanism of the soil erosion in water erosion regions, the theory and methods for developing a model of soil erosion in complicated conditions, and the theory and regulating mechanism for evaluating the impacts of water and water loss and the benefits of soil and water conservation. In particular it aims to:(1)Establish the scientific basis for soil and water conservation;(2)Resolve some specific unanswered questions;(3)Establish the mechanisms of runoff and sediment transport;(4)Develop an integrated multi-scale model for monitoring and forecasting soil erosion;(5)Establish a methodology to assess the impact of soil erosion and soil and water conservation measures. Its primary objective is to establish the fundamental causes of soil erosion and its driving mechanisms. The project will supply scientific basic for soil and water conservation decision making..