Abstract: The Turpan region in Xinjiang is rich in historical and cultural resources. In this study, the change of landscapes around the historical and cultural resources in the Turpan region was analyzed by applying the means of remote sensing (RS), geographic information system (GIS) and statistics based on the RS images in 1990, 1999 and 2010. The main results were as follows: (1) The approaches of natural science and the technology of space information can be used to improve the quantitative studies on some social subjects in protecting the historical and cultural resources; (2) From the view of time, the change of total number of patches of the historical and cultural resources during the period of 1990-2010 was not significant, the Shannon diversity index was decreased from 0.965 2 to 0.837 6, Shannon evenness index was increased from 0.436 8 to 0.521 7, and the landscape dominance index was decreased to some extent; (3) From the view of different landscapes, the historical and cultural resources affected slightly by human activities were the marine cemetery, Asa Xeher ancient city ruins and Kotantur ancient city ruins; those affected strongly by human activities were the Gaochang ancient city ruins, Jiaohe ancient city ruins and Sugong Tower. According to the study results, some suggestions were put forward for protecting and managing the historical and cultural resources in the Turpan region.

Key words: historical and cultural resources, landscape pattern, Turpan