The influence of land use change on the evapotranspiration is a hot issue in the hydrology and other related areas． The paper selects Xixian Basin in the upper reaches of Huaihe river as the study area，and analyzes the land use change on the basis of data of land use in 1995 and 2000． Then，it analyzes the effects of land use change on potential evapotranspiration in different typical years and different time scales based on the calculated values of evapotranspiration in each grid with the application of dual-source potential evapotranspiration distributed model． The results show that: from 1995 to 2000，the land use in 30% of the watershed area has changed，and the largest proportion of all is the transition from paddy field to dry land; the seasonal potential evapotranspiration in great mass of areas in which potential evapotranspiration has reduced to different degrees in different typical years，especially in summer; the annual potential evapotranspiration in great mass of areas in which potential evapotranspiration has reduced to different degrees in different typical years，and the dry year is the most significant． The research results can provide support for the study of water cycle evolution in the changing environment，and also have reference value for the development and utilization of water and land resources．