Abstract: This study focuses on 50 water quality monitoring sections in Changzhou in 2018 to explore the response of water quality indexes (NH3-N, CODMn, BOD5, TN, and TP) to land use patterns of riparian zone at different terrain (hill and plain) and buffer zones (25, 50, 200, 500 and 1 000 m) by using spearman, RDA and other mathematical statistical methods, which in order to provide scientific suggestions for water environment management. The results showed that the response of water quality index to land use pattern in hilly areas was more significant compared with plain area. In the hilly region, the interpretation of land use pattern to water quality index was higher in the buffer zone of 25 and 200 m. But in the plain area, the high degree of interpretation for water quality index is in the 50 m buffer zone. The effects of different land use patterns on water quality index is heterogeneity, like forest land and garden land were significantly positively correlated with water quality, while cultivated land and residential land were significantly negatively correlated with water quality. All above study indicates that when facing water environment management oriented to water quality objectives, land use pattern within 200m distance from the riparian zone should be optimized in hilly areas, simultaneously, it should be strengthened in plain areas within 50 m distance from the riparian zone at least.