[Objective] Using the soil erosion model in early warning of shallow landslide, to provide a new reference for landslide early warning work in mountain area.[Methods] A typical area covering 440 km² in Ziyang County of Shaanxi Province was taken as research area, where the historical landslide data, meteorological data and satellite data were collected. Universal soil loss equation(USLE) combined with GIS was used to determinate the critical soil erosion intensity. Upon which, the early warning rainfall amount was derived based on the relationship between rainfall erosivity and rainfall amount.[Results] A significant correlation between soil erosion and the landslide was found. The critical soil erosion in the research area ranked 69.6, 136.7, 179.4 t/km² respectively.[Conclusion] Compared to the traditional way that only the statistical relationship between landslide and rainfall is considered, the method which based on the USLE is easily applied and has a high practical value.