Abstract: According to Landsat images and ground investigation data, we interpreted the land cover types in 1987, 2000, and 2013 in Shennongjia Forest Region using Erdas Software, compared changes of land cover types in these periods, and analyzed the area and sources of changes in forest cover. The results indicated that forest area increased slowly by 14.70 km² during 1987-2000, in which shrub and grassland contributed the most to the forest increasing area; however, during 2000-2013 forest area increased rapidly by 207.49 km², in which shrub, grassland and farmland contributed the most. The application of remote sensing technology in monitoring the changes in land cover continuously and dynamically at macro level can enrich the background data and provide essential data for environment monitoring and biodiversity conservation.

Key words: remote sensing image, supervised classification, change of forest, achievement of conservation, Shennongjia forest region