Accurate assessment of ecosystem services and the matching state of water-land resources have a far-reaching influence on the integrated protection and restoration of "mountains, rivers, forests, fields, lakes and grasses" for the river basin, and the construction of a new pattern of territorially spatial development and protection for the river basin. Based on the response relationship between ecosystem services and water-land resources, this paper systematically reviewed the research status of ecosystem services assessment and water-land resources matching for the river basin. The main contributions of this paper include:(1) Screening accurate methods for large-scale ecosystem services assessment and their advantages; (2) Proposing the matching model algorithm of water-land resources combined the information entropy theory with the multi-objective optimization algorithm; (3) Pointing out the necessary for researchers to study the response mechanism of ecosystem services and water-land resources based on system coupling and coordination theory. This study aims to clarify the correlation between ecosystem services and water-land resources and its response mechanism, so as to provide theoretical support and technical guidance for the process goal orientation of "maximum economic-ecological benefits of land use, and minimum total water shortage" and the result goal orientation of "maximum benefits of ecosystem services" for the river basin.