The variability of recession behavior on the upper watersheds has been investigated on the different decades and soil types in the Java Island of Indonesia. A comparison of decade variations in retardation behavior indicates that decade II (1990-1999) has the smallest variability. This situation shows that there is a significant role for evapotranspiration in influencing the rate of depletion of water from the soil layers in the driest season of the decade. Since the dry season retardation behavior and the long-term average of retardation were not significantly different, the use of baseflow recession in a relatively dry decade could be used as an alternative approach to determine the real watershed retardation. Finally, the retardation factor was linked to soil, and classification according to soil type units showed only slight variations. The Typic Dystrudepts and Typic Eutrudepts are soil types that can control water retention slightly lower compared to other soil types