Abstract: With the aid of GIS,together with the theory of landscape ecology and settlement geography,spatial pattern of the residential land in the Naoli River Valley was analyzed.All the landscape indices,including patch mean area,patch cohesion index,sum-area and number of residential lands,have been increasing during the last 50 years,which shows that the agricultural settlement in the Naoli River Valley has been intensified,and its agricultural economy gradually turning into an urban economy.There are seven land use types,including residential land,wetland,farmland,water surface area,woodland,grassland and bottomland in the study area.Residential land is closely related to the other types of land use,but particularly to farmland,and the relationship between the two is turning closer and closer.Distribution of areas high in extension strength of the residential land varies somewhat with the time period.But they are mainly distributed at the early frontier of the reclamation.It eventually turned out that in the period from 1954 to 2000,the areas of high value of extension strength of residential land were mainly located in the western and central parts of the Naoli River Valley.Although both the area and number of residential lands have been increased greatly,the distribution of residential lands always shows a stochastic pattern,so it can be concluded that agricultural economy is still the prominent type of economy in the Naoli River Valley.

Key words: residential land, landscape pattern, dynamic change, Naoli River Valley, Sanjiang Plain