Abstract: Land use serves as the primary cause of global environmental changes. Therefore, investigating its spatiotemporal changes and corresponding driving factors is significant for promoting the sustainable development of regional socioeconomics and ecosystems. Based on nine stages of remote sensing monitoring data on land use/land cover from 1980 to 2020, this study analyzed the spatiotemporal changes in land use types in the Golmud River basin. By combining the analysis of significant correlations, this study explored the major factors driving changes in land use within the basin. The results indicate that over the past 40 years, unused land and grassland proved to be dominant land use types in the Golmud River basin. The areas of cultivated lands, water bodies, and construction lands exhibited an increasing trend, while those of forest lands, grasslands, and unused lands trended downward. The period from 2015 to 2020 witnessed significant changes in both the areas and the dynamic degrees of various land use types within the basin. During this period, spatial changes in land use transition predominately occurred in the central and northern parts of the basin. Between 1980 and 2020, the unused land showed significant fragmentation. Human activities, particularly total population and regional gross domestic product, were identified as the main factors driving changes in the land use type within the basin.