Abstract: By using Landsat images from 1995, 2005, and 2015 land cover/land use information of the Kashgar City, Xinjiang, China, were extracted, then converted to 50m×50m vector square grid cells, with which land cover/land use grid maps were established. The proportion of each land cover category within a grid cell area were calculated based on the vector maps. The spatial-temporal changing characteristics of land cover/land use of Kashgar from 1995 to 2015 and their driving factors were probed into using the proportional land cover maps. The transforming and replacing relationship between different land cover categories from meantime were analyzed with superposition. The results indicate as follows:(1)in the past 1995-2015 years, the land cover/land use change in Kashgar was severe, the area of construction land was most significant, the area increased by 3 times in 20 years, the area of bare land and green space decreased, and the change of water area showed a fluctuation trend.(2)in the past 1995-2015 years, the expansion of construction land in Kashgar was mainly expanded by the extension of "pancake" extension, but it also accompanied the intensive growth pattern of a small amount of internal filling, through regression analysis, the increase in the area of the construction land was closely related to the increase of urban population and the development of the social economy.(3)in the course of expansion, the construction land mainly occupied and replaced the bare land and the green space, and the increase of the green space has a direct connection with the reduction and the bare land occupation and the occupation.

Key words: arid area oasis city, grid cell, land cover and land use, spatial-temporal changing, Kashgar