Abstract: As society and technology develop, the impact of human activity on natural environment has widened and intensified, resulting in severe eco-environmental problems. Sensitivity analysis for regional eco-environment is of significance to planning eco-environmental protection and guiding regional ecological construction work. With the segment from Wushan to Fengjie in Three Gorges Reservoir Area as study area, the sensitivity evaluation models of single factor, namely geological disaster, rocky desertification, and soil erosion, were established. The weight of each factor was determined through analytic hierarchical process, and the comprehensive evaluation results of ecological sensitivity were further obtained through weighted summation. With the support of RS and GIS technology, the spatial distribution of ecological sensitivity was superposed on the administrative map of the study area for statistical analysis. Results revealed that insensitive areas, slightly sensitive areas, moderately sensitive areas, highly sensitive areas and extremely sensitive areas comprise 7.55%, 40.75%, 45.21%, 6.31% and 0.18% of the whole research region, respectively. Highly sensitive areas and extremely sensitive areas mainly distributed in Kangping town, Yong’an town, Wuxia town, Kangle town, Daxi town, Zhuyi town and Hefeng town. These towns are easily subjected to eco-environmental problems when affected by improper human activities, and hence should be the focuses of eco-environmental protection and restoration.

Key words: Three gorges reservoir area, ecological environment, sensitivity evaluation, soil erosion, rocky desertification, geological disasters, remote sensing