[Objective] The problem of water shortage has seriously restricted human production and life, and carrying out quantitative research on water yield services is not only conducive to the formulation of regional water resources protection planning, but also conducive to improving the comprehensive service function of regional ecosystems. However, at present, there is a lack of research on the temporal and spatial variation characteristics of water yield services in cold regions in China. [Methods]In this study, Harbin, a typical cold land city, was selected as the research area, and the spatiotemporal variation characteristics of water yield in 2000, 2010 and 2020 were analyzed based on the InVEST model water yield module, and the spatial and temporal evolution of water yield services in Harbin was revealed by using the parameter optimal geographic detector. [Results] The results show that: (1) The water output of Harbin from 2000 to 2020 showed a year-by-year growth trend, and the water output increased from 96.83×108m3 in 2000 to 223.08×108m3 in 2020. The spatial distribution pattern of water yield in different years is basically similar, and the overall distribution characteristics of high east and low west are manifested spatially. (2) There was a strong spatial positive correlation in the distribution of water yield in the study area, mainly low-low aggregation and high-high aggregation types, and the proportion of the two areas to the city''s area showed a downward trend from 2000 to 2020. (3) The influence of each driving factor on water yield has obvious spatial heterogeneity, actual evapotranspiration and land use type are the main driving factors of economic quality development zone. In the nature-dominated ecological barrier area, the comprehensive driving force of the two is far less than that of the economic quality development area. [Conclusion] Water yield assessment is the basis of water conservation research, which is closely related to the value of ecosystem services and ecological products, so the research results provide a basis for the establishment of ecological compensation mechanism and scientific and effective management of ecosystems in the research area.