The early stages of hydric erosion have been studied in several agricultural and experimental situations on calcic luvisol in the French mediterranean vineyard. Eight landuse practices were compared and submitted to simulated rainfalls of 60 mm/h (10 plots in all with 3 rainfalls/plot) : scrubland, fallow and six modes of vine growing including chemical and mechanical weeding of the inter-rows, grass covering, straw mulching, stone mulching and stone removal. The study revealed that scrubland was sensitive to runoff. We observed the higher runoff rates and soil losses under chemically weeded vineyards, and a fast protective effect against runoff and erosion in straw and stone mulched vineyards. The control of grass covering appeared to be more complex, but was promising for the sustainability of the agrosystem. Finally, we identified two indicators of soil erosion sensitivity : the soil cover which reduced significantly soil surface crusting and runoff and the soil aggregate stability, which was strongly related to SOC rate, and reduced the soil surface sealing and the surface water turbidity