The early development of resource-based cities leads to habitat loss or degradation. In order to achieve high quality urban transformation, it is necessary to deepen the understanding of the relationship between urban transformation and ecological environment quality, and the study of land use change characteristics and its impact on habitat to provide basis and support. In view of the lack of such research, this paper takes Wuhai, a resource-based city, as the research area, and explores the characteristics of land use transition, the spatial and temporal changes in habitat quality, and the impact of land use transition on habitat quality in Wuhai from 2005 to 2018 by using geo-informatic Tupu and InVEST model. The results indicate the following. (1) The trend of land use changes varied from 2005 to 2018, and the land use transition was obvious in Wuhai City. The number of land use change map units gradually increased by 78.14%, and the distribution range was gradually wider. In the first period (2005-2015), a large area of grassland decreased, accounting for 11.61% of the total area, while a larger area of construction land and mining land increased, accounting for 7.45% and 6.63% of the total area, respectively. In the second period (2015-2018), the trend was opposite. The grassland area increased by 1.88%, and the land used for construction and mining decreased by 5.16% and 2.93%, respectively. (2) Habitat quality changes in Wuhai showed a trend of strong degradation followed by weak enhancement. 18.75% of the regional habitat quality in Wuhai was extensively degraded in 2005-2015, while the area of improvement was small, accounting for only 5.43% of the total area. During 2015-2018, the area with improved habitat quality accounted for 10.86% of the total area and the degraded area accounted for 9.82% of the total area in Wuhai. (3) From 2005 to 2015, the conversion of grassland to mining land and construction land was the main reason for the decrease of regional habitat quality, and the contribution of habitat degradation was more than 70%. From 2015 to 2018, the conversion of mining land and construction land to grassland was the dominant factor for the improvement of regional habitat quality, and the contribution rate of habitat quality improvement was 70.5%. The results can provide reference for the decision-making of land use transition in Wuhai City, and have importantly significance for promoting the sustainable development of social economy and environment in resource-based cities.