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We focus here on the major and always topical issue of soil erosion by fluid flows, and more specifically on the determination of both a critical threshold for erosion occurrence and a kinetics that specifies the rate of eroded matter entrainment. A synthetic state-of-the-art is first proposed with a critical view on the most commonly used methods and erosion models. It is then discussed an alternative strategy, promoting the use of model materials that allow systematic parametric investigations with the purpose of first identifying more precisely the local mechanisms responsible for soil particle erosion and second ultimately quantifying both critical onsets and kinetics, possibly through existing or novel empirical erosion laws. Finally, we present and discuss several examples following this methodology, implemented either by means of experiments or numerical simulations, and coupling erosion tests in several particular hydrodynamical configurations with wisely selected mechanical tests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]