Habitat alterations remain the greatest threats to the world’s biodiversity.This study characterized the dynamics of waterfowl habitats at landscape scale in the Eastern Dongting Lake Nature Reserve between1989-1998by using satellite remote sensing techniques.Landsat TM satellite images for1989and1998were classified and analyzed.The waterfowl habitats were grouped into eight types:water body,mudflat,sedge land,reed land,paddy field,dryland,forest and settlement.By applying geographic information system(GIS),patch-related landscape indices were generated and the spatial patterns of waterfowl habitat changes over the10-year period were analyzed.The study indicates that the area of the suitable habitats for waterfowl,such as water body,mudflat,sedge land and paddy field decreased,while the fragmentation of these suitable habitats increased between1989-1998,which was indicated by a decreased mean patch size.The changes in the area and fragmentation of the unsuitable habitats for waterfowl such as reed land,dryland,forest and settlement showed a different pattern.The analysis also suggests that great changes in waterfowl habitats had happened during the past10years,the highest change rates were from sedge land to reed land and from paddy field to dryland,which were10.66%and6.13%of the total area of the Nature Reserve,respectively.The above-mentioned dynamics of waterfowl habitats between1989and1998suggests that the suitable habitats for waterfowl in this study area degraded.This study also proposed feasible suggestions on the biological conservation and habitat management through analyzing the reasons that caused the degradation of the suitable habitats for waterfowl.