【Objective】As an important means to increase the area of cultivated land, improve farmland infrastructure and raise grain production capacity, land consolidation (merging and leveling) has been widely extrapolalted throughout the country. Land consolidation is often accompanied by landfilling of ponds and pits and field leveling in the Plain of South Jiangsu, which are thought to pose a big risk of disturbing the soil environment. However, so far little attention has been paid to the potential short-term effect of farmland consolidation disturbing soil ecology. The aim of this study is to explore the short-term effect of land leveling relative to area on rice growth and specify soil factors that might affect the growth of rice in a short period of time after land consolidation, in an attempt to provide reference for monitoring soil quality, improving soil fertility and managing the ecology after land consolidation. 【Method】In this study, soil properties and rice NDVI were monitored via remote sensing and field surveys for analysis of short-term effects of land consolidation on soil and rice growth and their relationships, in Gengzhuang Village, Zhixi Town, Jintan District of Changzhou City. With the help of the engineering drawings of the land consolidation projects, remote sensing images, and field surveys, areas of waterbody filling (WF), topsoil cutting (TC), land filling (BT), and undistrubed land (U), were worked out, separately. Field monitoring of soil properties and rice growth in the first growing season in farmlands different in leveling degree. Topsoil samples were collected at 43 sampling sites, including 6 in Waterbody filling area, 15 in topsoil cutting areas, 16 in borrowed topsoil areas, and 6 undisturbed land areas, for analysis of certain basic physical and chemical indices, such as soil texture, pH, organic matter, total N, readily available phosphorus, readily available K, and available Zn and available Si that have important influence on rice growth to determine soil nutrient status of the farmlands. Rice growth was monitored by means of the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), which was extracted from the GeoEye remote sensing images of the areas. 【Result】Effects of land consolidation on soil properties and rice growth were monitored via remote sensing and field investigation, Result show：(1) Land leveling seriously affected nutrient status of the topsoil layer, by decreasing the contents of soil organic matter, total nitrogen and available zinc significantly within a short period of time after the leveling, however, it increased the content of available silicon and had little impact on available phosphorus and available potassium. Soil nutrient status varied sharply with type of land consolidation, showing an order of U > BT > FW > TC; (2) NDVI of rice also varied with type of land consolidation, being 0.763 for WF, 0.747 for TC, 0.808 for BT and 0.834 for U and displaying an order of Unworked > BT > FW > TC. (3) NDVI of rice growth was significantly and positively related to contents of soil organic matter, total nitrogen and available zinc，with coefficient of determination being 0.656, 0.617, and 0.625, respectively. 【Conclusion】Spatial variations of the contents of soli organic matter, total nitrogen and available zinc caused by land leveling are the main factors leading to rice NDVI heterogeneity. Land consolidation has serious short-term effects on soil and crop growth. Fertilization to build up the soil and management and protection of the ecology should be adopted to realize the transformation from quantity-and-productivity-based land consolidation to ecology- based one.