Abstract: The Hengshao drought corridor is a typical arid area in the south. The unreasonable land use pattern exacerbates the risk of disaster occurrence. Therefore, the evolution of land use spatial pattern in the Hengshao drought corridor is of great significance for understanding the mechanism of drought. Using the remote sensing image data of the Hengshao drought corridor from 2000 to 2017, and GIS spatial analysis and land use change index model, the spatial distribution characteristics of land utilization of Hengshao drought corridor from 2000 to 2017 was quantitatively analyzed from the perspective of land use change speed and transfer direction, and the evolution law of land use under different drought degrees was analyzed combined with meteorological observation data. The results showed that the agricultural land area was decreasing with the acceleration of urbanization, from 52.63% in 2000 to 38.89% in 2017, mainly distributed in the main urban areas and surrounding counties, and the water area continued to shrink due to the aggravation of drought. Forest land, construction land and unused land （naked land） continued to expand, and the land use dynamics of construction land from 2009 to 2017 reached 22.84% per annum. The increase in the former was mainly attributed to the national policy of returning farmland to forests, and the latter two were attributed to rapid urbanization.

Key words: LUCC, drought, remote sensing, Hengshao drought corridor