Abstract: River Basin is a typical life community of "mountains, rivers, forests, fields, lakes and grasses". Study of spatio-temporal evolution characteristics of habitat quality at basin scales is of great significance to the regional ecological environmental protection and sustainable development. Based on land use data from 1980 to 2020 and by using InVEST model, PLUS model, spatial autocorrelation, cold and hot spot analysis, and standard deviation ellipse, this study analyzed and predicted the spatio-temporal evolution characteristics of habitat quality in Ganjiang River Basin (in Poyang Lake of Jiangxi Province) for the period of 1980-2030. The results showed that: (1) From 1980 to 2030, the main land use type was paddy field, dry land and forest. In general, the area of paddy field and forest continued to decrease whereas the area of urban land, rural settlement and other construction land continued to increase. (2) The habitat quality showed a spatial distribution pattern of "high in the upper reaches and low in the middle and lower reaches". The average value of habitat quality decreased from 0.824 4 in 1980 to 0.804 6 in 2030, indicating an overall decreasing habitat quality. (3) The habitat quality showed significant spatial clustering characteristics with obvious hot and cold spots. The cold spots were mainly distributed in the Poyang Lake Plain in the northern part of the Basin, the Jitai Basin in the central part of the Basin, and the riverside plains in the south, while the hot spots were mainly distributed in Yushan Mountain Range and Wuyi Mountain Range. The cold spots in 2030 would spread outward, and the north-south direction would be more powerful than the east-west direction. The hot spots may have a weaker tendency of spreading out in the "northwest-southeast" direction than that of contracting in the "northeast - southwest" direction. (4) The intensity of habitat degradation in the Basin increased from 1980 to 2030, and the trend of habitat degradation became more obvious. The sub-basins where the degree of habitat degradation was increasingly deteriorated included Jinjiang River Basin, Xiaojiang River Basin, Yuanshui River Basin, Wujiang River Basin, Taihe section of Ganjiang River, Meijiang River Basin, Mianshui River Basin, Taojiang River Basin and Xiangshui River Basin. These results may provide scientific basis for decision-making towards a better management of habitat protection and regional coordination in Ganjiang River Basin.