Abstract: Taking the east ring road of Erhai in Dali as an example, this paper explored the characteristics of land use change from 1997 to 2015 by constructing the buffer zone and through the models reflecting degree and structure dynamic change of land ues in the region along the road. Results show that: ①With time developing, the land use accelerated its change, thereby reduced differences progressively on the rate of land use change between different buffer zones; ②Forests, bare soil and cultivated land had always been the most dramatic land use types in the study area, the spatial change activities of all land use types became different as the distance to the east ring road of Erhai changed. as time went on, the spatial change activities of the other land types except bare soil became more active within each buffer zone; ③From 1997 to 2015, the overall change of land use types in the study area was significant, in different periods, the main land use change types between different buffer zones were tended to converge, while their differences in all buffer zones became gradually significant over time; ④From 1997 to 2015, the degree of land use in the study area continued to rise but the growth rate had slown down significantly, and the difference of land use degree between buffer zones continued to decrease; ⑤From 1997 to 2015, the land use structure of the study area had been optimized overall, the equilibrium and isotopy of the land distribution both upgraded, and the difference of land use structure between buffer zones had decreased to some extent; ⑥In the past 18 years, the study on the change speed, the growth degree and the structure index of land use and differences of the spatial change activities among various types of land use presented the trend that the high value areas were keeping away from the east ring road of Erhai.