Background  Regional soil erosion changes are highly correlated with changes in land use/cover, but the influence of land use/cover changes on the soil erosion is different in various regions. A large number of related researches have been carried out in the Loess Plateau and the southern red soil area, but the studies on the northern soil and rock mountain areas are relatively less. However, the soil erosion in the northern soil and rock mountain areas is also serious, and most of them are caused by land use/cover change. Therefore, it is significant to explore their influences of land use/cover changes on the soil erosion to offer the references of land use planning and water and soil conservation for the government.

Methods  This study selected Chaobai River Basin in Beijing as study area. Using 30-year average annual rainfall data, soil attribute data, high-resolution DEM data, besides various years' remote sensing data and land use data, and the experimental methods of RUSLE and soil erosion intensity index methodology were applied to estimate the tempo-spatial distribution of soil erosion and soil erosion intensity index of the Chaobai River Basin in Beijing. On the above basis, the changes of soil erosion under different land use/covering conditions in different periods were finally calculated.

Results  The soil erosion modulus in the cropland to forestland conversion area and the cropland to grassland conversion area under the same coverage grade condition showed a decreasing trend, and the mean decreased by 362.32 t/(km²·a) and 259.54 t/(km²·a) from 1990 to 2015, while the soil erosion modulus in the forestland to grassland conversion area showed an increasing trend of 230.94 t/(km²·a). However, the soil erosion intensity index of forestland and grassland in the Chaobai River Basin of Beijing was overall greater than that of cropland, and reached the maximum in 2005, which were respectively 201.57 and 190.10. This was mainly because the degradation of forestland and grassland quality resulted in soil erosion deterioration. Although the transfer of cropland to forestland and grassland reduced part of the erosion, the soil erosion control in forestland and grassland areas cannot be ignored.

Conclusions  The research results can provide a certain technical reference for realizing the optimal allocation of land resources in Beijing mountainous areas and effectively controlling soil erosion. The government should not only pay more attention to the prevention and control of soil erosion on sloping cropland, but also strengthen the supervision of soil erosion on low-efficiency plantations with low coverage and incomplete vertical structure, and grassland erosion in the early stage of returning cropland and unmanaged grassland after abandoned tillage.