Abstract: With the land use maps interpreted by the remote sensing images of Jia ngsu Province in 1990, 1995 and 2000 as data source, and by using GIS buffer ana lysis and landscape metrics, a comparative study was made on the spatiotemporal patterns of urban expansion and landscape dynamic change of Nanjing, Suzhou, Wux i, and Changzhou from 1990 to 2000. The results showed that from 1990 to 2000, t he four cities had both similar and unique features in the rapid urbanizati on process. Urban land kept increasing, but the increment and increasing rate we re higher in the first five years than in the late five years. From 1990 to 1995 , the four cities expanded mainly around central built-up areas. After 1995, th e urbanization of the four cities proceeded mostly in urban-rural fringes and de p ended on the emerging of new urban land patches. From 1996 to 2000, the most act ive zone in Nanjing was between 3 km and 6 km away from the city center, that in Wuxi moved from the zone between 9 km and 6 km to the zone between 6 km and 9 k m, the urban structure in Changzhou simplified most obviously, while the landsca pe fragmentation degree in Suzhou exhibited an increasing trend.

Key words: Yele, Taxus chinensis, Population, Distribution pattern, Aspect patches, GIS, Landscape indices