Abstract: Shanxi is located China’s inner province and has a temperate continental monsoon climate. It is shaped like parallelogram, covers an area of 1.56×10.5 km². It has temperate vegetation, including broadleaf deciduous forest in central and southern Shanxi and steppe in northern Shanxi. Based on the vegetation map of Shanxi in 1984 and 2005, the map of formations was edited in ArcGIS software. Then range and area of each formation, forest, shrub, herbaceous vegetation and cultivated vegetation in Shanxi were got. Spatial distribution and its succession, spatial pattern and its change in vegetation were studied by the methods of overlay analysis and landscape pattern analysis. Forest was relatively concentrated in the southwest and significantly increased in the northwest corner. It was most dispersed distribution in the vegetation of Shanxi. Its area and proportion in vegetation were the lowest. Pinus tabulaeformis forest was dominant in forest. The reconstruction of forest depended mainly on P.tabulaeformis forest, Populus simonii forest and Quercus liaotungensis forest. Shrub in 1984 was the largest area, occupied the highest proportion in vegetation and more than 50%. It covered in contiguous area which was the biggest in vegetation. However, it decreased rapidly in central and southern Shanxi. Shrub was most seriously damaged in the vegetation of Shanxi. Hippophae rhamnoides, Ostryopsis davidiana shrub and Cotinus spp., Forsythia suspensa shrub were the biggest influence on shrub. Herbaceous vegetation decreased mainly in northern Shanxi and increased in central and southern Shanxi. It was more dispersed than before. Bothriochloa ischaemum grassland was dominant and Artemisia spp., grass steppe and Thymus mongolicus, grass steppe changed most obviously in herbaceous vegetation of Shanxi. Cultivated vegetation increased obviously. Its proportion in vegetation increased rapidly and became dominant in vegetation of Shanxi. Forest and cultivated vegetation increased 24.3% and 71.5% respectively, but shrub and herbaceous vegetation decreased 70.3% and 15.6% respectively. Succession was mainly caused by human being.

Key words: Shanxi, spatial distribution, spatial change, vegetation