Abstract: Based on the interpretation data of LANDSAT TM and socio-economic data, the spatial-temporal characteristics and driving mechanism of rural construction land expansion in Jiangsu province from 2000 to 2018 were analyzed by using kernel density estimation, landscape index and GeoDetector. The results showed that： ①The scale of rural construction land in Jiangsu province has been expanding continuously, and the expansion rate has fluctuated and decreased. The fastest expansion rate was 0.71% from 2000 to 2005, and the lowest expansion rate was 0.38% from 2015 to 2018. ②According to the situation of rural construction land transfer, from 2000 to 2018, a total of 2 853.76 km² of other types of land were transferred to rural construction land, of which 87.9% came from cultivated land, and 1 769.00 km² of rural construction land was transferred, of which 66.5% was transferred to urban industrial and mining land, 29.1% were converted to arable land. ③The expansion degree of rural construction land from 2000 to 2018 is as follows： northern Jiangsu > southern Jiangsu > Central Jiangsu. The largest expansion area is in Yancheng, Suzhou and Nantong, all over 100 km², and the smallest is in Xuzhou, with an expansion area of 18.21 km². ④According to the spatial distribution pattern, the kdensity of rural construction land presents the distribution characteristic of "Multi-core", the spatial differentiation is remarkable, the NP reduces, the PD decreases, the LPI increases, the AI increases. Based on the degree of expansion and aggregation, the expansion mode of rural construction land in 13 cities can be divided into seven categories. ⑤The main driving factors of rural construction land expansion in Jiangsu province are rural population, rural per capita income, agricultural structure and the proportion of rural amphibious population. The expansion of rural construction land in southern, central and northern regions of Jiangsu province can be generalized into three models： economic-transportation, population-agriculture and economic-agriculture.

Key words: rural construction land, spatio-temporal variation, partition driven difference, Jiangsu province