The research on the land use/cover change is one of the frontiers and hot spots in the globe change research Based on the Chinese resource and environment spatial temporal database, and the Landsat TM?MSS and ETM data which were acquired at the end of 1970’s?1980’s and 1990’s respectively, we analyzed the spatial temporal characteristics of land use/cover changes in the Dong ting Lake area The result shows that during the last twenty years there were three land use types that have changed remarkably The cultivated land decreased by 1 97% of total cultivated land The construction land and water area expanded, with an increase of 14 88% and 8 77% respectively The land use change speed of land use type at the period between the end of 1970’s and 1980’s is slower than that at the period between the end of 1980’s and 1990’s Three cities and towns, Yue yang City?Yuan jiang County and Han shou County have gotten the greatest value of the degree of land use change in all administrative district at the previous 10 years, which means that the land use in these cities and towns has changed much quickly However, at the later 10 years, Shi shou City and Jin shi City, all of them are city level district,have developed from county to city, replacing Yuan-jiang County and Han shou County, and have gotten the greatest value of the degree of land use change.