Abstract: Land use/cover change (LUCC) is one of the hot topics in the study of global change. In this research, the authors adopted the method of human-computer interaction to amend the 2005 ESA GlobalCover land use data based on the Landsat TM/ETM remotely sensed data around 2005, then used the inverse phase visual interpretation method to extract land use/cover change information between 1980 and 2005 based on the Landsat MSS/ TM remotely sensed data in the 1980s, and analyzed the Spatiotemporal pattern and driving forces of the change. The results show that in the 25 years between 1980 and 2005, that area of land use/cover change reached 794300 km² in Brazil, accounting for 9.33% of the total land area. Among these, cropland increased by 201800 km², cropland/ natural vegetation mosaic increased by 107000 km², forest area decreased by 531200 km², shrub and grassland converted to other land use types by 236000 km² and the opposite conversion was 447000 km² with a net increase of this land use category by 211000 km², water increased by 4600 km², urban and built-up areas extended by 7573.87 km². But the land use macroscopic structure did not change. Regional differences of the main land use change forms including deforestation, grassland in- and out- conversion, Land reclamation, and urban and built-up area expansion led to different land use/cover change characteristics in tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forest ecological zone, tropical and subtropical dry broadleaf forest ecological zone, tropical and subtropical steppe ecological zone, grassland and marsh wetland ecological zone, desert and xeric plants ecological zone, and mangrove forest ecological zone. Natural geographical conditions such as landform, climate, and vegetation profoundly affected the macro pattern of land use and the possibility of land use change. Although climate change had a certain impact on cropland reclamation and the increase of grassland, land use policy, economy and foreign trade development, population growth and migration, and road construction were the direct causes of land use change in Brazil.

Key words: Brazil, driving force, land use/cover, rainforest, spatiotemporal pattern