Abstract: With the combination of gradient analysis based on GIS and quantitative analysis of landscape elements, this paper studied the urbanized spatial pattern of Pingliang City in Jinghe River basin. Several landscape indices in landscape-and class level were calculated in Fragstats along a 30 km long and 3 km wide transect with a moving window based on a 1∶100 000 land use remote sense image. The re s ults showed that under the effects of urbanization, the landscape along the rural-urban transition of Pingliang City was compositionally diverse, geometrically complex, and ecologically fragmented. The spatial patterns of different land us e types were not uniform along the gradient, and the landscape process affected by human activities depended on the land use pattern and its type.

Key words: Red soil, Slope field, Potassium loss, Cultivation