Abstract: Taking Lijiang River basin as study area, and based on the remote sensing images of 1973, 1986, 2000 and 2013, the land-use data were extracted, the ecological risk index was constructed, and the characteristics of spatiotemporal variation of ecological risk were analyzed by “3S” technique. The results showed that land use structure of Lijiang River basin was under relatively reasonable state and it was constantly optimizing during 1973-2013. Overall, the ecological risk of Lijiang River basin was maintained at a low level. Lowest and lower ecological risk region was dominant in Lijiang River basin, but the area of highest ecological risk expanded quickly. The spatial distribution of ecological risk was basically stable and showed an obvious ring structure, which gra-dually decreased from the axis of Xingan County Town-Lingchuan County Town-Guilin City-Yangshuo County Town to other regions. Region with lowest ecological risk mainly distributed in natural mountain forest area of the north and mid-eastern parts of Lijiang River basin, and region with highe-st ecological risk concentrated in Guilin City. The ecological risk distribution of Lijiang River basin presented significant slope and altitude differences, and it decreased with increasing slope and altitude. During the study period, the area of low ecological risk converted to high ecological risk gra-dually decreased and vice versa. On the whole, the ecological risk tended to decline rapidly in the Lijiang River basin.