Abstract:The correlation between watershed landscape pattern and water quality depends upon the temporal and spatial scales.The study addressing different spatio-temporal scales could provide a clear basis for integrated management of land and water.Typical sub-watersheds of Nenjiang river were chosen as study sites, and the correlation between landscape pattern and river water quality was studied at the scales of sub-basin and riparian,wet and dry season,then the temporal and spatial difference in correlation was analyzed.The results of spatial scale analysis indicate that,more landscape indices correlated significantly with water quality indices at the sub-basin scale than at the riparian scale.Along with increase of spatial scale,the negative relationship of NO3—N and integrated pollution index with the forest percentage declined after initial increasing, and this negative relationship reached its strongest at the 400mbuffer.While the positive correlation of TDS,NH4—N,NO3—N,integrated pollution index with the farmland percentage also decreased after initial increasing along with increase of spatial scale,and the strongest relationship was found at 300mbuffer. Therefore,300~400m might be the critical area for river corridor management of Nenjiang river.As for temporal scale analysis,more landscape indices correlated closely with water quality indices in wet season than in dry season.In wet periods,forest,grassland and farmland landscapes were more relevant to water quality,while the construction landscape was more relevant to water quality in dry season