Abstract: Based on land-cover information obtained from the land-cover type maps of 1979,1987 and 2002,three landscape indices,such as percentage of a patch in area,fractal dimension and area variation coefficient,of the studied catchment were analyzed to determine land-cover pattern and its dynamic characteristics,including patch area,shape of patches and spatial relationship during the past twenty years.Sustainability of four indices,i.e.fragmentation index,diversity index,fractal dimension,and relative reasonability of land-cover at the catchment level is simulated.The results indicate that the pattern of land-cover in the Wufendigou Catchment tended to be a relatively stable landscape structure of mosaic,which is quite stable in land-cover type,simple in patch shape and subject to greater human interference.The sustainability analysis of land-cover characteristics showed a result quite identical with that of the analysis of their corresponding indices.

Key words: land-cover, spatial pattern, landscape sustainability, GIS, catchment