[Objective] The relationship model of variation of water and sediment in the Yellow River basin was studied, in order to provide theoretical support for the study on the variation of water and sediment in the basin.[Methods] The driving factors of the variation of water and sediment in watersheds of middle and upper reseaches of the Yellow River were analyzed, and the relationship model of the variation of water and sediment was deduced based on differentiation.[Results] According to the simulation test of the variation of sediment transport rate and flow at seven stations in the Loess Plateau and the middle and upper reaches of the Yellow River, the average validity coefficient of the model was 0.860 and 0.887, and the average relative error was 14.8% and 6.7%, respectively.[Conclusion] The model have been tested from three aspects:the simulation accuracy of flow variation, sediment variation and the contribution ratio of variation of each factor, which preliminarily proves the rationality of the model structure and the high effectiveness of the simulated sediment variation.