To improve the human well-being and promote the sustainable development of cities in inland river basins (IRBs) in China, it is important to summarize the current progress of the impacts of urban landscape dynamics (ULD) on the water-related ecosystem services (WES) in the IRBs. This paper systematically reviewed the progress of relevant research. The results showed that, in general, the number of relevant papers and the citations increased. In terms of research objects, the existing research mainly focused on water retention, water quality purification and water supply. The methods mainly included value assessment methods and physical assessment methods. In addition, the current research released that the ULD has caused the decline of the total amount of WES and the increase of spatial heterogeneity of WES, as well as the intensification of the trade-offs of WES. These studies have laid a good foundation for understanding the impacts of ULD on WES in the IRBs. However, existing studies still have deficiencies in revealing the mechanism of impacts, simulating future impacts, analyzing trade-offs, synergies and supply-demand flows of WES, and exploring sustainable management in the IRBs. Therefore, it is necessary to establish a framework based on the principle of "mechanism, process, and sustainability" for evaluating the impacts of ULD on WES in IRBs in the future, and carry out integrated evaluation research, which is beneficial to the comprehensive and optimized management of the cities, mountains, rivers, forests, farmlands, lakes and grasslands in IRBs, China.