Abstract: To reveal the relationships between the dynamics of settlement and its original status in urbanization, the changes of settlement percentage coverage (SPC) from 1988 to 2006 were studied with a method of neighborhood analysis based on the 1988, 1998 and 2006 Landsat TM images of Nanjing. The results showed that in 1988-2006, the total settlement area increased continuously and the landscape units with increased SPC dominated all the time, but lots of the landscape units with decreased SPC appeared from 1998 to 2006. With the rising original SPC value, the mean amplitude of the SPC of relevant landscape units mounted up and peaked at approximately 30%, and then descended gradually to negative value. In 1988, 1998 and 2006, the frequencies of the landscape units with lower SPC were higher than those with higher SPC, but the gap between the frequencies of the landscape units at lower SPC intervals (0 to 3%) and those at higher SPC intervals (>3%) narrowed in urbanization. In the time periods of 1988-1998 and 1998-2006, there were apparent differences between the curves of total settlement areas at relevant SPC intervals, but the curves of both increased and decreased areas were similar in shape.

Key words: Yard-greenbelt, Special characteristics, Landscape heterogeneity