Abstract: The spatial pattern and change of land use, especially the built-up land, has become the focus of urban research. This paper uses Chinese land use remote sensing data in 1980, 1990, 1995, 2000, 2005, 2010 and 2015, analyzing the change of built-up land from 1980 to 2015. A systematic analysis is carried out. The main research work is:① Calculating the area and growth rate of urban land, rural residential areas, other built-up land and total built-up land in China from 1980 to 2015, and obtain the rate of change of built-up land in China from 1980 to 2015. ② Using the GIS software joint analysis tool to obtain the change pattern of Chinese built-up land from 1980 to 2015. ③ Making the land use transfer matrix, so that the structure of Chinese built-up land change from 1980 to 2015 can be obtained. The research shows that Chinese built-up land as a whole shows a trend of continuous expansion. The eastern and coastal areas are growing at a faster rate, the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau is basically unchanged, the central and northeastern regions are growing at a slower rate, and the northwestern region has a small increase. The built-up land is mainly transferred, mainly cultivated land.

Key words: LUCC, built-up land, spatial pattern, time and space evolution, remote sensing