Abstract:To analyze soil quality in relationship to land use/cover in landscape at a village level in hilly regions South China, village landscape maps were plotted out of high resolution (1m) IKONOS satellite imagery using a standardized ecological landscape classification (land form, land use, land cover, ecotope) and mapping system. Results demonstrate that: Under different land use landscapes, soils in the 0~15 cm layer differ sharply in soil bulk density (SBD) (highest in Constructed of 1.42 g cm-3), soil organic material (SOM) (highest in Paddy soil of 18.67 g kg-1) and soil total nitrogen (TN) (highest in Paddy soil of 0.95 g kg-1). The land use landscape of the region mostly consists of Forests (52.05%), Rainfed land (22.30%) and Paddy soil (11.6%). The stock of soil nutrients is mainly affected by soil area. In the 0~15 cm soil layer, the Forest has the highest soil nutrient stock, about 55.05% in SOM, 53.88% in TN, and 46.23% in soil total phosphorus (TP) of total region, respectively. Under different land cover landscapes, there also are significant differences in SBD (highest in Sealed cover of 1.42 g cm-3), SOM (highest in Mixed cover of 15.96 g kg-1) and TN (highest in Mixed cover of 0.68 g kg-1). The land cover landscape of the region is composed of Perennial cover (54.50%), Annual cover (15.15%) and Mixed cover (22.92%). The soils nutrient stock in the 0~15 cm layer under Perennial cover are the highest, about 55.01%, 54.53%, and 59.02% in SOM, TN and TP of total region, respectively. Because of little human disturbance, no significant difference is found in SBD, SOM, TN and TP of 15~30 cm soil layer in different types of land use/cover. Compared with soils in woodlands and paddy fields with high in vegetation cover, soils in residential areas, barelands under intensive human distur-bance and lands with low in vegetation cover are high in SBD but low in soil nutrient content.