Abstract: Landscape ecological characteristics of the urban-rural ecotone of Nanjing City were studied by using remote sensing and geographical information system (GIS) techniques. Two representative study regions with the same area were chosen in the eastern and southern part of the city. The urban-rural fringe of both east (URFE) and south region (URFS) can be divided into three zones: fringe-paraurban zone, transition zone and pararural zone. URFE was basically characterized by low landscape diversity, dominance and fragmentation. The forest patches in URFE had larger area and average perimeter, while their average fractal dimension, average stretched index and separated degree were lower. The average area of vegetable land and paddy land was larger than that of south region. URFS showed higher landscape diversity, dominance and fragmentation, more and higher density of patches. The area and the perimeter of water and architectural patches in URFSwere also larger than that of URFE. The relationship between patch area and fractal dimension, stretched index and fractal dimension, patch number and area were discussed. The function and contributing factors of each type of patches, especially forestland, and the landscape characteristics and the ecological significance of corridors including road, river, and city wall of urban rural fringe were also analyzed.

Key words: Urban-rural ecotone, Landscape pattern, Nanjing city