The construction of reservoir is an important aspect in course of hydropower construction. The rate of reservoir sedimentation determines reservoir life. Soil and sand caused by soil erosion is important source material of reservoir sedimentation. Accurately predicting the amount of soil erosion has good reference for calculating fixed number of years of reservoir sedimentation. After six evaluation factors were quickly obtained using RS and GIS, which were the rainfall-runoff erosivity(R) factor, the soil erodibility (K) factor, the slope length (L) factor, the slope steepness (S) factor, the cover and management (C) factor, and the conversation support-practices (P) factor respectively, this paper evaluated and estimated soil erosion of study area based on the revised universal soil loss equation (RUSLE). According to the Chinese national standard, soil erosion intensity is divided into six levels, which are minor-loss, mild-loss, moderate-loss, severe-loss, serious-loss and violent-loss respectively. Results show that minor-loss and mild-loss occupied the main part of study area, which accounted for 47.49% of the study area. Moderate-loss, severe-loss, serious-loss and violent-loss accounted for 16.03%, 11.89%, 9.47% and 12.33% of the study area respectively. In addition, river area accounted for 2.79% of the study area. The results show that the level of soil erosion in study area is relatively low, but violent-loss areas are mainly located in frontal dam and near dam of reservoir. After the hydropower established, soil and sand from soil loss will directly enter the reservoir. When the hydropower designed, we should consider the soil loss will give influence on reservoir sedimentation.
