History of soil and water conservation and its monitoring (abbreviated as SWCM) were reviewed，and contents of soil erosion monitoring as ambit，object and index were discussed. The foundation stone of SWCM，i. e.，the basic theories of soil and water conservation and subject denotation of soil and water con- servation were analyzed. Finally, the way of fully utilizations of the information of the processes and outcome investigation was discussed and some basic problems about the development and research of SWCM were induced.