Abstract:Five factors affecting soil erosion were chosen including precipitation, topology, soil texture, vegetation cover and land use to evaluate the soil erosion sensitivity in Zhuxi small watershed using the spatial analysis function of ArcGIS. The results showed that: (1) The area of high sensitivity is largest, accounting for 55.96% of total area; followed by percentage of slight sensitivity, which account for 38.62% of the total area; the percentage of high sensitivity and none sensitivity erosion are low, accounting for 4.22% and 1.20% respectively.However, the area with extrem sensitivity erosion only accounts 0.001%; (2) The erosion of slight sensitivity and sensitivity are the main types of soil erosion in the east, middle and west of the whole watershed, and the proportions of high and none sensitivity area are small. Extreme erosion sensitivity area spreads in the middle of the watershed. Generally, the erosion sensitivity in the east is higher than that in the central and west of the watershed; (3) The soil erosion sensitivities are not consistent with soil erosion degree in many regions, because the human activities are the main factors affecting the soil erosion in this area. The proportion of erosion sensitivity is the largest, nevertheless the main degree type of soil erosion is micro erosion.