Abstract:The urban-rural coupling region of Wuxi has been selected as the focus of this study because of the co-existence of both urban and rural landscapes. This region has experienced remarkable urbanization and transformation. In this paper we ascertained the urban-rural coupling regions of five periods about Wuxi over 1984-2008 by synthesizing remote sensing, geographic information system, and landscape ecology, with the landscape ecology pattern analyzed in each period. Results indicate that the expansion of continuous built-up area in this rapidly urbanized area accompanied by a synchronous expansion of the coupling regions. The percentage of construction land in coupling region keeps increasing along with the expansion of coupling region. The master construction patch is characterized by an initial decrease and subsequent increase in its stability. The spatial evolution of coupling region has induced a corresponding change of landscape pattern density index. The increases of construction patch lead to landscape fragmentation as a whole. With the rapid decline in the dominance position of plowland adjacent boundary, construction adjacent boundary is increasingly gaining its dominance. This has resulted in the ever rise in the inter-mingling of different landscapes, as revealed by the degree of landscape mosaic denoted by the edge patchiness degree.