In order to characterize the soil erosion change in windy desert region of northern Shaanxi Province in the last 26 years, the Chinese Water Erosion on Hillslopes Model was combined with GIS and RS technic to assess the average erosion amount of Jialu River watershed in 3 period years (1988-1996, 1997-2004 and 2005-2013), and analyze temporal and spatial variation characteristics of soil erosion under different vegetation coverage and different land use patterns. The results showed that (1) the Chinese Water Erosion on Hillslopes Model is suitable to predict erosion in the study area; (2) Soil erosion intensity was closely related to the spatial distribution of rainfall erosivity (R), topography and land use patterns; (3) 26 years were divided into three periods, the first period of 1988-1996, the second period of 1997-2004 and the third period of 2005-2013, the corresponding mean annual R factor were 923.09, 1 010.75 and 1 551.40 MJ·mm/(hm2·h). The soil erosion modulus were 4 513, 5 855 and 3 556 t/(km2·a). The total soil loss of the first and third periods respectively were 5.10×106 t and 4.02×106 t, reduced by 21.18%. The land use patterns greatly changed in the watershed after Green for Grain Project. The area of cultivated land decreased from 53.38% to 25.87%, while the grassland increased from 38.64% to 69.64%. The descending order of soil erosion intensity in different land use was unused land, grassland, forestland and cropland, so the benefit of soil and water conservation was the most obvious in unused land and grassland. So Green for Grain Project has already obtained obvious benefit of water and soil conservation.