Land use and land cover change (LUCC) and its environmental effects are a hotspot of research in the last two decades. This paper summarized the major achievements and progresses in the research on the LUCC environmental effects in China and the world. Five aspects of LUCC effects were firstly discussed, including on atmosphere, soil, water, forest/biodiversity as well as farmland/human health, and then the methodologies and models of assessing the LUCC environmental effects were introduced. Finally, possible problems and future research focus were discussed. The research should be enhanced on integrated assessment of environmental effect of LUCC, the effect of urban land use and urban sprawl, and development of technologies for data collection and modeling.