Abstract: The changes of wetland landscape pattern around Chaohu Lake was examined to reveal the evolution characteristics and driving factors of the study area based on the remote sensing data during 1975-2020. The object-oriented classification method based on sample is adopted in association with high-resolution image to correct the wrong classification. The characteristics and dynamic changes of landscape pattern were analyzed by calculating land use transition matrix, dynamic degree and landscape pattern index; the driving forces of the changes were discussed through principal component analysis. Results unveiled that: 1) the area of wetland around Chaohu Lake presented a declining trend in general, from 971.77 km² to 905.29 km² in 1975-2020, most of which is converted into construction land, agricultural land and vegetation land; the area of constructed wetland expanded to 39.58 km² during 2013-2020, mainly converted from agricultural land; among non-wetland landscapes, the area of construction land expanded the most rapidly, from 13.85 km² to 566.56 km². 2) In the analysis of landscape index, the number of patches increased, and the fluctuation of different types of patch index varied; on the whole, the landscape fragmentation index climbed from 0.49 to 1.26, indicating a more heterogeneous and complex landscape; the diversity index displayed a slow growth trend and tended towards a balanced distribution. 3) According to driving force analysis, natural factors played a significant role in the early stage of landscape evolution; with the development of social economy, the effect of natural factors is gradually weakened and social economy became an important driving factor; policy factor played a guiding role in regional landscape evolution by changing the distribution of landscape types via policy regulation.

Key words: wetland around Chaohu Lake, landscape pattern, dynamic change, driving force analysis, principal component analysis