The Zhujiang River Delta is one of the rapidly developed regions in China.Based on dynamic remote sensing data of land use in 1990

2000

and 2006

spatiotemporal variations of land use and landscape pattern were analyzed with the help of the spatial analysis function and landscape pattern index in GIS.Results showed that from 1990 to 2006

the changed land of 13 580.81 km2 in the region accounted for 32.93% of the total land area.Change speed in the later 6 years was faster than that in the former 10 years.The areas of urban land

rural residential land

and other construction lands expanded quickly and water bodies increased intensively

while paddy-fields

non-irrigated farmland

and forest decreased evidently.The number of patches increased remarkably

the landscape became smaller pieces

and the heterogeneity increased.Nearly round indexes of paddy-fields

non-irrigated farmland

forests

water bodies

and urban land were rather low and the shape of the patches was complicated.Fractal dimension ranged from 1.26 to 1.44 and land use types were complicated due to the continuous intense intervention by humans.Separation degree of forests essential to the total land was the lowest

while separation degrees of paddy-fields

urban land

non-irrigated farmland

and water bodies were relatively low and showed pieces-link distribution.