Abstract: Background Hydrological data in Li River showed that the distribution of its water resource was not uniformity. During the flood season a large amount of sediment along with the runoff flowed into the river due to the vegetation degradation, which caused the deposition of the river and the increasing of the river bed. The rainfall and surface runoff is one of the main causes of soil and water loss, and the accompanied environmental problems from soil erosion such as riverbed elevation and water quality deterioration should be solved urgently. Usually the external natural factors cannot be controlled, but the controllable factors such as the improvement of the surface cover and the soil condition can effectively alleviate the soil erosion on the slope. Methods In this study, 7 experimental plots were established according to the different vegetation configuration. Plots were built in vegetation strips of Li River in Guilin, Guangxi Autonomous Region, where the slope was 5°. We set the rain collecting pool in the area of plots爷outlet, which aimed to collected surface runoff flows through the plots. During the flood season we observed the runoff and sediment loss under the condition of natural rainfall, the runoff was measured through the volume method, and the sediment content was measured by the water quality analyzer in this experiment. The data were processed by Excel 2007 and analyzed by SPSS18.0 software for correlation analysis. Results 1)Vegetation significantly intercepted runoff and sediment, the higher the vegetation coverage was, the better the interception was; thus the vegetation coverage should be increased in the restoration areas, which could effectively prevent and control soil erosion. 2) The riparian vegetation covered by Setaria plicata intercepted runoff and sediment better than others, S. plicata should be preferably selected as the shore plants in bare degradation area of Li River. 3) Pure herbaceous vegetation intercepted sediment better than that of grass and shrub vegetation. However different vegetation arrangements had their respective advantages and disadvantages, during vegetation restoration we should choose different vegetation configuration modes according to the needs. 4) Surface runoff and sediment were positively correlated with rainfall and rainfall intensity at the level of P <0.01, there was a close linear relationship between runoff and sediment. Conclusions Thus, through some ways such as increasing vegetation cover on bare slope surface, selecting S. plicata as the fast green grass in Li River, establishing the interception measures on the top of slope, and so on, the soil and water loss could be effectively reduced, the non-point source pollution caused by soil erosion could be alleviated.