Better understanding of the role of vegetation and soil on hydraulic resistance of overland flow requires quantitative partition of their interaction. In this paper, a total of 144 hydraulic flume experiments were carried out to investigate the hydraulic characteristics of overland flow. Results show that hydraulic resistance is negatively correlated with Reynolds number on non-simulated vegetated slopes, while positively on vegetated slopes. The law of composite resistance agrees with the dominant resistance, depending on simulated vegetation stem,surface roughness, and discharge. Surface roughness has greater influence on overland flow resistance than vegetation stem when unit discharge is lower than the low-limited critical discharge, while vegetation has a more obvious influence when unit discharge is higher than the upper-limited critical discharge. Combined effects of simulated vegetation and surface roughness are unequal to the sum of the individual effects through t-test, implying the limitation of using linear superposition principle in calculating overland flow resistances under combined effect of roughness elements. Better understanding of the role of vegetation and soil on hydraulic resistance of overland flow requires quantitative partition of their interaction. In this paper, a total of 144 hydraulic flume experiments were carried out to investigate the hydraulic characteristics of overland flow. is negatively correlated with Reynolds number on non-simulated vegetated slopes, while positively on vegetated slopes. The law of composite resistance agrees with the dominant resistance, depending on simulated vegetation stems, surface roughness, and discharge. Surface roughness has greater influence on overland flow resistance than vegetation stem when unit discharge is lower than the low-limited critical discharge, while vegetation has a more significant than when the upper-limited critical discharge of the individual effects through t-test, imply ing the limitation of using linear superposition principle in calculating overland flow resistances under combined effect of roughness elements.