Shangluo City is a typical area of Qinling mountainous region

which is an ecologically sensitive area where ecological protection is of great significance

using ETM＋ images and NDVI of MODIS

the study investigated the different influence of land use degree on vegetation coverage. The influences of human activi-ties on lands were analyzed throughout and locally. Statistical analysis was conducted on the ＂cells＂

which was the towns and districts of the city. The land use degrees were then calculated globally over the whole study area and locally on the cells. After the spatial autocorrelation being computed

the land use degrees were found closely correlated with the cumulative percentages of NDVI. A formula was proposed using both the land use degrees and NDVIs

and was then applied to analyze the impacts of land use change on the envi-ronment during the past 9 years. The results show that in most of the region

the ecological environment was improving faster than or nearly equal to the land use degradation. This is a remarkable achievement made by ecological restoration efforts in study area. The ecological restoring forces were strong in most towns during the 9 years

which means that the related policies were enforced well in both economic development and envi-ronmental protection. However

the land use degrees in some towns still need to be improved

and more at-tention should be paid to the regional ecological environment.