Due to the undulating terrain, earthwork estimation was very difficult in the planning and design of land consolidation projects in the hilly areas. A new approach was proposed to estimate the earthwork of sloped terraces according to map features of planning and design of land consolidation in this paper. It was achieved by applying digital elevation model (DEM) theory and statistical function of the slope with GIS software according to the derived formula. A land consolidation project was chosen as an empirical research example to use the proposed approach in Yangxin County, Hubei Province. Study found that the use of GIS for earthwork estimation of sloped terrace is feasible, the earthwork of different slope range could be estimated quickly according to sloped terrace section (ridge height, ridge slope and the field surface slope after down slope) after getting the area of different slope range using GIS. The approach is simple and fast, with strong practical characteristics. It provided a new idea for earthwork estimation of sloped terrace in hilly area, and improved the efficiency of project planning and design.