Abstract: The land use information in Changzhou city for 1995, 2000 and 2005 was derived from remote sensing coupled with GIS techniques in this paper.The landscape patterns were analyzed employing the selected 7 landscape indices, and the ecological carrying capacity was calculated using the ecological footprint model,Pearson correlation coefficient between the landscape patterns and the ecological carrying capacity via the package of SPSS were also involved in the current analysis. Ultimately, an assessment of the sustainable development status of Changzhou was made according to the dynamic ecological capacity and the ecological deficit and surplus. Results showed that the trends of land use almost remained stable over the period from 1995 to 2005. The changes were mainly built up area(increased 9.69%), other land(decreased 10.12%),forest(increased 8.54%)and farmland(decreased 6.47%).The ecological capacity of 1995、2000 and 2005 were 0.239 2, 0.234 7, 0.226 3 hm²/cap respectively. In all city ecological capacity, the ecological capacity of the Wujin and Xinbei district were higher than other districts relatively, and that of the Qishuyan district was the lowest. Ecological capacity had a significantly positive correlation with the Maximum Patches Index, Aggregation Index, and an obvious negative correlation with the patches density.The per capita ecological deficit of three years were -0.822 1, -1.091 6, 1.488 7, respectively,and the ecological coordination degree of each person of three years was 1.195 4, 1.158 9, 1.122 2.The driving factors of regional ecological capacity could be analyzed and evaluated more precisely based on the intrinsic relationship between landscape pattern and ecological capacity,which provided a new method and idea for the research of ecological capacity.