Abstract: Abstract: The restoration of vegetation in the abandoned land requires support of water resources, but as drought events occur frequently in Southern China, especially significant in purple hilly region of central Hunan the restoration is often difficult. As a result, the vegetation is rare in purple hilly region and the eco-environment is very fragile, and soil degradation and erosion are very severely. Since 1990s, more and more dry-land in the hilly region was abandoned by the farmers because of the enlarging gap between the prices of farm products and manufactured products. After dry-land was abandoned, the pioneer plants inhabit first and vegetation succession begin, which affect soil characteristics, microbiology and microclimate. Conversely, the soils in the region also affect the type, distribution and dynamic change of vegetation through providing water and mineral nutrients. Earlier studies reveal that vegetation restoration improves soil structure, increase proportion of soil porosity, and soil water storage capacity for vegetation succession. Vegetation restoration is one of the primary measures to improve eco-environment of the purple hilly region. Our objective was to determine the impact of natural vegetation restoration in abandoned dry-land and the impact of succession stages on soil physical properties and soil water characteristics . In this paper, four natural lands with various succession stages on abandoned dry land from the purple hilly region were selected to study soil water storage capacity and related soil physical properties by using "adjacent plot comparing method". The results showed that: no obvious changes occurred in subsoil (20-40 cm) bulk density among different succession stages (p>0.05). However, there was notable changes in surface soil layer (0-20 cm), the order of the average values was as follows: dryland > herbosa > arbor-shrub community >shrub community, and the value of soil bulk density was 1.38 g/cm3、1.3 g/cm3、1.24 g/cm3 and 1.19 g/cm3, respectively, indicating that vegetation restoration incurred lower bulk density of surface soil. The results also showed that the quality distribution of soil particle varied obviously (p<0.05). The content of gravel (1-2 mm) and coarse sand (0.25-1 mm) in herbosa was higher comparing with dry land. The content of gravel and coarse sand decreased and that of silty clay (<0.05 mm) and fine sand (0.05-0.25 mm) increased in stage of arbor-shrub and shrub community. In the same soil layer for different succession stages, there was higher proportion (p<0.05) of finer soil particle content in arbor-shrub and shrub community, however, soil particle content in vertical structure of profile varied obviously in succession middle stage and it was uniform in arbor-shrub stage. In addition, the results showed that the soil capillary porosity of surface soil in herbosa stage was significantly lower (p<0.05) than the other types of vegetation, indicating vegetation succession on abandoned dry land can increase soil capillary porosity. Non-capillary porosity varied indistinctively in different succession stages. All soil total porosity of surface soil was higher than subsoil at different succession stages and there was significant level (p<0.05) in herbosa stage, showing that vegetation succession affected soil total porosity. Moreover, the results showed that soil water-storage capacity had the same changing pattern with soil porosity in different succession stages. Soil capillary and total water-storage capacity of topsoil with various succession stages increased (p<0.05), which showed that vegetation restoration might raise soil water storage capacity. Last, correlation analysis of various soil physical properties indicated that soil water storage capacity mainly determined by soil bulk density, porosity, coarse sand (0.25-1mm) and silt and clay (<0.05 mm) content. We concluded that vegetation succession stages altered soil surface physical properties greater than the subsurface soil. The decrease in bulk density and increase in porosity helped to improve soil water holding capacity and hence improved the environment for vegetation establishment.