Abstract: Taking Dongting Lake Ecological Economic Zone as the research area, based on the land use data and DEM data of Hunan Province, the dynamic change degree, terrain niche and terrain niche distribution index of land use were constructed, and the land use change characteristics and terrain gradient effects were analyzed. The results showed that cultivated land and woodland were the main types of land use, cultivated land and grassland showed a decreasing trend, woodland decreased first and then increased, waters area increased first and then decreased, urban and rural construction land expanded rapidly, and the area of unused land expanded continuously. The dominant position of cultivated land lied in the low terrain niche, woodland centrally located in the middle-high and high terrain niche, water, urban and rural construction land and unused land were mainly distributed in the low terrain niche, and grassland was distributed in all terrain niche, but had no distribution advantage. Stable change type was the main land use change mapping. Continuous change type and repeated change type were mainly the conversion among cultivated land, waters and unused land in the low terrain niche. In the early change type and late change type, the conversion of cultivated land and woodland into urban and rural construction land was mainly located in the middle and low terrain niche, and the conversion of cultivated land to woodland was mainly located in the middle and high terrain niche. Based on the above analysis, the Dongting Lake Ecological Economic Zone was divided into comprehensive functional areas, high quality rural areas and ecological conservation areas, and the corresponding strategies of land use and social and economic development were put forward.

Key words: Key Words： land use, terrain niche, distribution index of terrain niche, Dongting Lake Ecological Economic Zone