Landscapes disturbed by human activities commonly have erosion rates accelerated by several orders of magnitude over pre-disturbance conditions. New approaches to eectively decrease soil erosion rates from disturbed lands are urgently required to decrease non-point source pollution. One such best management practice (BMP) combines the application of rolled erosion control systems (RECSs), composed of either natural or synthetic ®bers, with seeding of hillslopes to enhance biomass production. This synergistic approach is thought to be one of the most appropriate for mitigating excessive soil erosion on disturbed non-agricultural hillslopes. Over the past decade an active erosion control industry (ECI) has developed, and a variety of dierent RECSs have been brought to market. However, limited scienti®c data are available to the land manager, speci®er, or design engineer to assess the relative eectiveness of these products in reducing sediment yield and in enhancing the development of vegetation. Few studies exist that have rigorously compared RECSs using a well-developed experimental design. Most studies lack sucient replication and/or randomization. Additionally, in many studies there is a failure to control variables between cycles, runs, or events, including antecedent moisture content and sediment availability. The result is a mass of information that can be potentially misused to justify the selection of a given product that may be less eective than a competing product. The objectives of this two-part paper are: (i) to synthesize all available erosion-related literature dealing with RECSs applied to hillslopes during two periods: up to 1990 and post-1990; (ii) to highlight important scienti®c contributions to the literature on RECSs; (iii) to assess the scienti®c rigor of various studies, and re-analyze and re-interpret data when available; and (iv) to make constructive suggestions to improve future studies to develop a quantitative linkage between the physical characteristics of RECSs, soil erosion processes, and vegetation cover.