Soil conservation can greatly influence runoff by reducing sediment into river.Runoff cost for sediment control, shown as RRS(ratio of runoff retained to sediment retained) of different soil and water conser- vation measures is an important integrated indicator to evaluate the impact on runoff and sediment synchro- nously.Based on the reported research results on the effects of soil and water conservation on runoff and sed- iment in North China, runoff cost for sediment control with different measures and integrated measures at different basin scales is analyzed.The regional differences of runoff cost for sediment control by integrated and individual measu res are distinct.If soil and water conservation measures with a smaller RRS are adopted, more runoff can be saved in red ucing the same amount of sediment and water resource conditions can be improved in the arid and semi-arid areas.