This paper is the result of hydrogeological survey engineering. Objective A new evaluation method for catchment scale dependent groundwater ecosystem in semi-arid region was established. The method will include both surface and sub–surface information and provides a technical support to groundwater resources development and ecosystem protection in semi–arid areas. Methods Taking the Hailiutu catchment in the Ordos Plateau as the study area. Four indicators including depth to water table, soil types, vegetation coverage and evapotranspiration were selected and the spatial distributions of these indicators were determined based on field survey and remote sensing interpretation. Finally, a systematic assessment was performed in a GIS platform to identify the distribution of GDE and the degree of dependency. Results The results indicate that the areas very high and high dependent on groundwater accounts for 10.2%. Although the areas are small, biodiversity and bio-mass in such place are much higher with high ecological value than the that of others due to the contribution of groundwater to vegetation growth. Conclusions Based on the comparison between this study and site studies, the results have a good agreement and are reliable, indicating that the proposed method is applicable to other similar regions. The sensitivity analysis shows that the most sensitive parameters are soil types and depth to water table that should be paid more attention during data collection in field works.