A study on variations of wetland and their causes in the Hetao Basin was carried out against the background of water pollution,swamping of lakes and salination in order to provide references for rational utilization and protection and relevant researches of wetlands in study area. Here we examined variation in wetlands over the last 40 years based on wetland watersheds and remote sensing images of the Hetao Basin, Region, China. According to hydrologic conditions and characteristics of human activity, the study area was divided into irrigation wetlands and Wuliangsuhai wetlands; the irrigation wetlands consisted of Yellow River irrigation areas and well irrigation areas. We found that the total wetland has generally increased. The Yellow River irrigation area was greatly influenced by local precipitation and showed an obvious recession during periods of low rainfall. The Wuliangsuhai wetland changed significantly and expanded from 1977 to double in area by 1996 because of large-scale construction of canal irrigation and drainage. A progressive decrease in the area of well irrigation in the northern part of the Hetao irrigation area can be attributed to massive exploitation of groundwater for agricultural irrigation. Overall,under the influences of human activity and climate change, the Hetao wetlands have changed greatly, especially during the 1970's. The wetlands in different geographical locations suffer from different influences, resulting in distinguished changes in the area of wetland.