The impacts of land use types on water quality of highland lakes were investigated and modeled based on the data collected from the nine plateau lakes in Yunnan Province． The Kuznets curve analysis was used to simulate the time series of the dynamic changes of land use intensity and water quality． The results indicate that the contents of phosphorus in the water samples from the lakes to some degree correlated negatively with the areas of cultivated land，gardens，and wetlands，and positively with the areas of woodlands，grasslands，and construction areas． In contrast，the contents of nitrogen in the water samples from the lakes correlated negatively with the areas of grasslands，cultivated lands，gardens，and wetlands，and positively with the areas of the construction lands． Overall，the pollution indices were negatively correlated with the areas of gardens and cultivated lands，and positively with the area of the construction lands． The temporal analysis indicated that the basins of Dianchi Lake and Lugu Lake were in a status of wellbeing，the basins of Yangzonghai，Fuxian，Xingyun，Cheng Lakes were in a status of crisis，and the basins of Erhai and Yilong Lakes were in a status of converting from crisis to wellbeing．