Background At present, China’s urbanization has entered a new stage of transformation focusing on improving the quality. Because the emergence and development of urban soil and water conservation are closely related to the urbanization processes, its tasks, contents, and scope boundaries have significantly changed with differentiated urban development level, complex urban industry crossover, and refined urban management requirements. Against the backdrop of people-centered new- type urbanization, it is necessary to discuss the development and prospect of urban soil and water conservation to support the high-quality development of cities.

Methods The authors took urban soil and water conservation and urbanization as the key words to collect relative papers from all literature database at home and abroad. In order to summarize the development course of urban soil and water conservation in China, interpret its connotations in the New Era, and discuss its variation characteristics and driving mechanisms, 28 papers were chosen as references after excluding many papers that were not closely relevant to the targets of this review.

Results 1) The urban soil and water conservation in China started late but developed rapidly, and has the characteristics of synchronizing with urbanization, crossing with construction industry, and integrating with urban governance. 2) The urban soil and water loss and its impacts on surrounding environments are accelerated and amplified by human activities. Its type, distribution, and degree are circularly varied around the city center due to different functional positioning and development status. Thus, its prevention and treatment should highlight the differentiated concepts of zoning, classification, and grading. 3) With the increasing of urbanization rates and service demands, the urban soil and water conservation should pay more attention to its regulation and culture service functions such as water resources conservation, sediment trapping, and maintenance of human settlements. 4) Present standards and specifications of urban soil and water conservation are focused on production and construction projects. Urban agroforestry activities are also important sources of soil and water loss and non-point source pollution, which need to complete relative standards to improve the effectiveness and ecology of technical measures. 5) The development of urban soil and water conservation should focus on fundamental research, technology development, government supervision and management. The regulatory capabilities can be enhanced by improving ecological restoration technology under different site conditions, quantifying supervision standards based on risk assessments, and taking the advantage of digital and intelligent means.

Conclusions The urban soil and water conservation faces both a challenge and an opportunity with the comprehensive green transformation of economic and social development. Its connotations, plannings, technical measures, and standards need further expansion and improvement to promote the high - quality development of soil and water conservation in the New Era. How to build a solid research foundation, strengthen the technical supports, and improve the regulatory capacities are important tasks and development directions.