[Objective] The temporal and spatial evolution characteristics of the productive-living-ecological land use and its ecological environmental effects in the Central Plains urban agglomeration from 2000 to 2020 were analyzed in order to provide references for the optimization of the productive-living-ecological space pattern in rapidly urbanized areas and for regional ecological environmental protection. [Methods] Based on land use data of the Central Plains urban agglomeration in 2000, 2010, and 2020, the ecological environmental quality index and the landscape pattern index were used to quantitatively analyze the ecological environmental effects of the productive-living-ecological land use transition in the Central Plains urban agglomeration. [Results] ① The area of production land in the study area decreased significantly (-7 890 km²), the area of ecological land was relatively stable (changing only 0.1%), and the area of living land increased rapidly (7 638 km²). The conversion of productive-living-ecological land use from 2000 to 2010 was much lower than in 2010—2020. ② The eco-environmental quality index of the study area initially rose and then fell, showing an overall spatial pattern of “high in the west and low in the east”. Zhengzhou City had the largest decline, and Jiyuan City increased the most. LPI, LSI, COHESION, AI, SHDI were highly correlated with EV. ③ The improvement trend of the ecological environment was less than the deterioration trend. The main factors causing deterioration were the conversion of forest and grass ecological land to agricultural production land and the occupation of agricultural production land by living land. ④ The fragmentation of various landscapes increased over time, and the degree of aggregation and connection decreased over time. The shape of the landscape tended to become irregular, the diversity and uniformity have increased, and the overall ecological environmental quality deteriorated. [Conclusion] The evaluation results of the eco-environmental effects of the two evaluation indexes on the transformation of productive-living-ecological land use tended to be consistent, i.e., the eco-environmental quality of the study area has declined over time. The occupation of forest land and grassland ecological land by agricultural production land is the main factor of ecological environment deterioration.