The land use and landscape pattern in the lower reaches of the arid inland river basin is meaningful to water resource allocation. Based on the land use data in 1930, 1961, 1990, 2000, 2010, the purpose of this study was to quantitatively analyze the change of landscape pattern in the Ejin Delta in the lower reaches of the Heihe River Basin, a typical inland river basin in Northwest China. The results showed that the desert area accounted for 73.4% of the total research area in 2010, and the grassland 20.8%. During the past 80 years, the grassland, farmland and construction land increased. The transformation of land use types were characterized by switching to farmland and construction land. The fragmentation and. diversity of the landscape increased, while the dominance of the landscape decreased. The landscape pattern obviously lied on the water resource and had regional diversity. Land use changes tended to make the landscape well-distributed, diverse and fragmentized. At last, the driving factors and ecological environment effects of land use change were discussed. In a word, to ensure harmonious development between human and eco-hydrology, suggestions such as planning ecological resettlement, limiting farmland area, developing precision agriculture and increasing the proportion of ecological water use should be put forward.