Abstract: The theory of poroelasticity is introduced to study the hydraulic properties of the steady uniform turbulent flow in a partially vegetated rectangular channel. Plants are assumed as immovable media. The resistance caused by vegetation is expressed by the theory of poroelasticity. Considering the influence of a secondary flow, the momentum equation can be simplified. The momentum equation is nondimensionalized to obtain a smooth solution for the lateral distribution of the longitudinal velocity. To verify the model, an acoustic Doppler velocimeter (ADV) is used to measure the velocity field in a rectangular open channel partially with emergent artificial rigid vegetation. Comparisons between the measured data and the computed results show that the method can predict the transverse distributions of stream-wise velocities in turbulent flows in a rectangular channel with partial vegetation.