Abstract: Objective The Gushanchuan basin was chosen as a study area which is prone to serious soil erosion inthe Loess Plateau to investigate the requirements of soil and water conservation benefit assessment andsoil loss control.We quantitatively studied the spatial-temporal dynamic features of the soil erosion ofthe area over the past three decades by applying soil science,remote sensing(RS)and geographic in-formation systems(GIS).We obtained three main results.Firstly,variations of the soil erosion in thestudy area in the past three decades(1975to 2006)were divided into two stages.The first stage wasbetween 1975and 1986,when soil erosion intensified and eroded area increased by 138.13km2,par-ticularly in the southeast part of the basin.The second stage was between 1986and 2006,when soil e-rosion weakened.The eroded area decreased by 163.09km2,and soil erosion decreased in the entirebasin,particularly in the east.Secondly,soil erosion above the medium degree mainly occurred in theelevation ranging from 1 070mto 1 300m,with the slope ranging from 18°to 35°correspondingly.The precipitation in 1975and 2006was scanty,and the erosion above the medium degree have a rain-fall erosivity ranging from 900MJ·mm·hm-2·h-1 to 1 150MJ·mm·hm-2·h-1.The erosion a-bove the medium degree in 1986and 1997have a rainfall erosivity ranging from 1 300MJ·mm·hm-2·h-1 and 1 800MJ·mm·hm-2·h-1.The area with serious soil erosion corresponded to the areadistributed with high rainfall erosivity.Thirdly,the soil erosion in the basin predominantly occurredin farmlands and woodlands.During the period between 1975and 2006,the farmland area decreased,and the woodland and pasture areas increased,and the soil erosion weakened as a whole.The develop-ment of the land use of the basin was in a positive way,and soil erosion showed an obvious weakeningtrend.These results would provide references for understanding soil erosion and macro decision -making for controlling soil erosion in the first Loess Hill and Gully area sub-region.