A case study was carried out in Nihegou, a typical watershed in the Loess Gully region. Color-infrared aerial photographs taken in 1986, SPOT images created in 2002, results interpreting GF-1(Gaofen-1 satellite)images in 2016, and socio-economic data were collected and used in this study. The change in landscape patterns over the past three decades was characterized by the landscape index and land use level indices and analyzed using information entropy theory. The characteristics of the change in ecosystem service values are quantitatively assessed with a version of an equivalence estimation method, which was originally used for ecology service valuations. The results showed that over the past 30 years, land use and land cover in the studied areas have undergone significant changes, with the areas of arable land, orchards, and unused land decreasing and the area of woodland and developed land increasing. The overall fragmentation of the landscape patterns is decreasing and the connectivity of the dominant patches is tending to grow stronger. The level of land use is continuing to grow and is greater than the national average level, at 231. The information entropy of land use decreased and then increased, indicating that the landscape patterns changed from an originally disordered state to a more ordered state and then returned to a more disordered state. The aggregate value of ecosystem services in this area, with the major individual functions being soil formation and protection, waste disposal, conservation of water sources, and maintenance of bio-diversity, is tending to rise. High-resolution satellite images provide highly specific data in support of this characterization of the changes in the landscape patterns and the ecosystem service values of this watershed.