Background Comparing the differences between soil and water conservation schemes (SWCS) and construction drawing designs (CDD) may effectively master the implementation and effects of soil and water conservation measures, and hence providing technical support for the sustainable development of soil and water conservation for production and construction project.

Methods Differences of 4 rainwater utilization measures (rainwater pipeline, permeable pavement, low elevation greenbelt, and rainwater harvesting pool) and 4 vegetation measures (arbor, shrubs, herb and grass-embedded bricks) of 50 typical projects in Beijing between SWCS and CDD were compared, and situations of compliance with standard for 3 indexes of the forest coverage, rainwater utilization rate and rate of hardened ground were analyzed.

Results 1) There were widespread differences in soil and water conservation measures between SWCS and CDD. There were markedly differences in one or more water conservation measures for 90% of the 50 analyzed projects, and the number of projects with obvious differences in rainwater utilization measures was lower than that of vegetation measures. 2) Except the rainwater harvesting pool, there were obvious differences in the other three rainwater utilization measures. Except the socking bricks, the other three vegetation measures showed obvious differences, with the largest reduction rate of trees was 84.3% and the largest increase rate of shrubs was 103.2%. 3) Soil and water loss indicators reached the standard well, with rainwater utilization rate, forest coverage, and control rate of hardening ground were 90%, 84% and 100% respectively.

Conclusions Therefore, the main reason of the differences between SWCS and CDD was that the following design was complied with the scheme of protecting indexes of soil and water losses, but ignoring the specific layout system of soil and water conservation systems. The process management should be strengthened in the coming projects of production and construction projects.