Abstract: Monitoring of regional vegetation cover change is the basis of researching the carrying capacity of resources and environment, which is crucial for regional sustainable development. Based on the MODIS NDVI data, the fractional vegetation coverage of the Three Gorges reservoir area in 2001-2018 was calculated by using dimidiate pixel model. Combining the extraction model of fractional vegetation coverage change type and distribution index, the distribution characteristics of fractional vegetation cover change on different topographic factors in the reservoir area were revealed. The research shows that: (1) The fractional vegetation cover of the Three Gorges reservoir area is dominated by high and medium-high coverage, which accounted for 65.72% and 28.61% of the total area of the study area respectively. In the past 18 years, the annual coverage growth rate reached 0.14%. (2) The vegetation stability type accounted for 79.50% of the reservoir area, the vegetation improvement type accounted for 16.71%, and the vegetation degradation type accounted for 3.79%. In 26 distticts of the Three Gorges reservoir area, the vegetation improvement area in 7 districts, such as Changshou District and Jiangbei District, is less than the vegetation degradation area, which had high ecological degradation risk. (3) The vegetation degradation type in the area with elevation less than 500 m and slope less than 6° is significant; the improvement of vegetation in the elevation range of 500-1 100 m is the dominant type; the area with slope of 6°-15° has no obvious dominant distribution. Vegetation stability and vegetation improvement type with an elevation greater than 1 100 m and a slope greater than 15° are the dominant distributions. (4) In the study area, the vegetation degradation type on the flat slope is significant in different aspects. When the aspects changes from the shade to the sunny slope (west slope → south slope, north slope → east slope), the dominant distribution type of vegetation cover changes from vegetation degradation type to vegetation improvement type. The research results reveal the spatial distribution and change characteristics of vegetation cover in the Three Gorges reservoir area, which has certain reference significance for the ecological environment assessment and vegetation restoration and protection of the reservoir area.