Soil erosion and its induced rocky desertification, as the most serious ecological problem in Karst Plateau, is the biggest obstacle and threat to the construction of ecological civilization. In this study, taking a typical karst plateau mountainous City, i.e. Guiyang City, as the object, using RUSLE model, adopting the global and local spatial autocorrelation, and Getis—Ord G_i^* methods based on Exploratory Spatial Data Analysis (ESDA—GIS), the soil erosion of Guiyang City in 2008, 2013, and 2018 was assessed. The spatial-temporal distribution and changes were analyzed, and the impact of vegetation coverage factor and rainfall factor on the change of soil erosion was revealed. The results showed that: (1) The soil erosion of Guiyang City was effectively controlled from 2008 to 2018, and the average soil erosion modulus decreased from 819.11 t/(km²·a) in 2008 to 70.14 t/(km²·a) in 2018. The soil erosion intensity was mainly slight erosion at present, showing a deterioration trend in 2013—2018. (2) The spatial distribution and evolution of soil erosion in Guiyang City displayed an obvious spatial aggregation effect. The Global Moran’s I index ranged from 0.125 to 0.280, but the aggregation trend was characterized by "overall weakening and small diffusion". The erosion hotspots was mainly distributed in Qingzhen City, Huaxi District, Kaiyang County and Xiuwen County, as well as areas with an altitude of 1 200~1 300 m or a slope of 8°~15°. (3) The contribution of vegetation cover factor to the changes of soil erosion area was about 74%~92%, which was the leading and controlling factor of soil erosion, while the contribution of rainfall erosivity factor was only about 7.5%~26.0%. This research could provide the important scientific basis for the comprehensive control of soil erosion and rock desertification, the optimization of land space, and the construction of ecological civilization city in the Karst region.