[Objective] We aimed to analyze the spatial distribution and its change of air temperature based on GIS technology in rugged terrain

in order to provide basis for the study of regional ecological environment

agriculture regionalization

and climate change.[Methods] Taking Chongqing City as a case study

we collected annual temperature data from 1971 to 2010 in 34 meteorological stations in Chongqing City

and constructed the air temperature spatial distribution model according to the correlation between air temperature and topographic factors(longitude

latitude

altitude

slope

and aspect) based on GIS and DEM(digital elevation model) with high resolution(100 m×100 m).[Results] (1) Correlation coefficient between different inter-decadal air temperature and topographical factors were all greater than 0.8. (2) The annual temperature decreased initially and then increased. In 1970s and 1980s

it showed a downward trend

while from 1990s

it showed a significant increase. (3) Temperature in most areas of Chongqing City tended to increase

and the increasing range was:southeast > northeast > west.[Conclusion] In rugged terrain

the spatial distribution of air temperature has strong correlations with topographical factors. Moreover

three-dimensional display of air temperature in ArcScene based on GIS can clearly reflect the spatial distribution of air temperature.