Abstract: To apply landscape pattern analysis in landscape planning and management is of theoretical and practical significance for maintaining regional ecological safety. Taking a riparian zone in the suburb of Suzhou, Jiangsu Province of East China as an example, an attempt was made to integrate landscape graph and bioenergetics to explore a simple, intuitionistic, and effective approach to trace the landscape change and evaluate the ecological consequences of land use change, aimed to supply basis for the decision-making of sustainable landscape planning and management. With the support of ArcGIS and the four periods Google Earth images, the landscape graphs of the riparian zone were delineated, and the changes of the amount, type, and spatial conformation of nodes and linkages were mapped to trace the variation course of the landscape in the zone and to interpret the ecological meanings of the landscape graphs. The landscape of the riparian zone had endured degradation, with an evident trend of landscape fragmentation, obvious decrease of natural landscape connectivity, extinction of small rivers and ponds, and inadequate riparian buffers. The detection of key ecological nodes and linkages could provide invaluable insights of taking particular measures for natural landscape conservation, and balancing contradictions of protection and development.

Key words: Quercus variabilis, aboveground, architecture, biomass distribution.