Rainstorms on the Loess Plateau have highly variable spatio-temporal characteristics52. Heavy rainfall is concentrated in a few hours or even minutes. There are also major differences for the same rainstorm within several kilometres; it has great locality. The typical spatio-temporal characteristics of rainstorms determine the dominant position of infiltration-excess runoff on the Loess Plateau, and the flood process showed a precipitous fall with a sharp thin peak. Runoff generation was mainly driven by precipitation characteristics and the initial catchment saturation53. Because of the particularity of hydrological processes and the implementation of soil conservation measures on the Loess Plateau, the correlations of rainfall-runoff (y = 451.16e0.0598×, R2 = 0.101, n = 17, p > 0.05) and rainfall-sediment (y = 36509x − 4E + 06, R2 = 0.114, n = 17, p > 0.05) are often both scattered and very weak (Table 1), although the correlation of rainfall-sediment (mm, kg) is stronger than rainfall-runoff (mm, m3). The results are consistent with previous studies that the annual sediment yield of the Xiliugou Basin in the upper Yellow River showed a significant downward trend from 1960–2013, whereas no significant trend was detected in annual precipitation54. Furthermore, high vegetation cover and well-developed biological soil crust were the important factors in reducing runoff and erosion55,56. The results accord with Zhao et al. (2014), who showed pastures and crops were effective in decreasing runoff and erosion57. The relation of rainstorm and runoff can be expressed as the relation between total rainstorm amount and total runoff amount, or the relation between the spatio-temporal process of the rainstorm and the corresponding runoff yield.