Abstract:The stability and erodibility of soil aggregates under three treatment conditions, including fast wetting(FW), slow wetting(SW) and mechanical disturbance(WS), were analyzed using the Le Bissonnais method in this study. The experimental materials were the soil of vegetated concrete ecological restoration slopes with restoration years of 1, 3, 5 and 18 a in the city of Yichang, Hubei Province. The results showed that soil aggregates under SW treatment were dominated by ≥5.00 mm particle size, soil under WS treatment had the highest percentage of aggregates with ≥5.00 mm particle size, but its ratio was lower than that of SW treatment, and soil aggregates with <0.25 mm particle size had the highest percentage under FW treatment, indicating that soil aggregates were highly fragmented after FW treatment, and less fragmented after SW treatment. The mean mass diameter(MWD) and geometric mean diameter(GMD) values of soil aggregates were the highest in the SW treatment and the lowest in the FW treatment, while the soil erodibility value(K) was the opposite. The relative dissipation index(RSI) of soils were greater than their relative mechanical fragmentation index(RMI) at the same restoration years, indicating that dissipation induced by rapid wetting was the main mechanism of soil aggregate fragmentation. Under the SW and WS treatments, soils from the slopes with restoration years of 18 a had the highest percentage of ≥2.00 mm grain size aggregates, the lowest percentage of <0.25 mm, the largest MWD and GMD values, and the smallest K values. It could be seen that heavy rainstorm scouring might lead to soil structure instability and erosion of vegetated concrete slopes, and the soil structure of vegetated concrete slopes gradually tended to be stabilized with the increase of restoration years.