Abstract:The objective of this paper was to illustrate the mutual influence of runoff & sediment characteristic as well as its hydraulic parameters under different slope gradients (5°, 10°, 15°, 25°), tillage measures (no treatment, artificial backhoe plowing, artificial digging plowing, contour tillage) and rainfall intensities (60 mm/h,120 mm/h). Successive rainfall of 90-minutes duration was performed in the rainfall simulation laboratory of the State Key Laboratory of Soil Erosion and Dryland Farming on the Loess Plateau. Runoff and sediment were collected once per two minutes when runoff came forth. Results showed that the amount of runoff and sediment of slopes with different tillage measures were in an order: no treatment>artificial backhoe plowing>artificial digging plowing>contour tillage. This behavior illustrated that their soil & water conservation effects enhanced sequentially. At loess slopes with same tillage method, their runoff increased significantly from 1.04 kg/min to 3.02 kg/min under the rainfall intensity of 120 mm/h when compared with the rainfall intensity of 60 mm/h, and the rainfall intensity had a great impact on runoff. Simultaneously, runoff and sediment amount were logarithmically increased with rainfall duration. Under the same rainfall duration, overland flow transformed from the transitional and subcritical flows to the turbulent and supercritical flows with the increase of rainfall intensity and slope gradient, thereby exacerbating the soil erosion. Tillage, rainfall intensity and slope gradient were critically important factors which affected slope erosion process, sediment yield and its hydraulics features. Thus, the adoption of effective conservation tillage, weakness of slope effect will contribute to the soil and water conservation at the loess sloping land on the Loess Plateau.