With the help of remote sensing data and GIS, by using the indices of the landscape pattern, such as fractal dimension, patch density, fragment index, landscape diversity index etc., this article presents the dynamic change of Kaifeng city from 1988 to 2002. The results show that: (1) There were a rapid increase in the patch number from 1988 to 2002 in the study area,the patch number increased from 28784 in 1988 to 32311 in 2002. The whole shape turned irregular and the fragment of the landscape degree became serious, from 1.1308 in 1988 to 1.1334 in 2002. (2)The construction area, water area, and green-land increased individually from 8049.97hm 2, 4756.86 hm 2, and 1076.31 hm 2 in 1988 to 11852.60 hm 2, 6486.21 hm 2 and 2125.52 hm 2 in 2002; the farmland (mainly the irrigable land), non-used land and orchard area decreased individually from 10937.97 hm 2, 2500.56 hm 2, and 1454.67 hm 2 in 1988 to 4206.42 hm 2, 1104.84 hm 2, and 623.83 hm 2 in 2002. (3) The center of high-density construction area was shifted to southwest, green-land to northeast and water area to southeast. (4)The high-density construction area changed rarely, but low-density construction area was mainly transformed to high-density construction area; farmland mainly to construction area and non-used land to farmland and green-land. (5)Urbanized index and landscape used degree increased a little from 20.08% to 29.57%, and the landscape used index increased a little from 293.0532 to 315.8277. (6)Human activity has important influence on the urban landscape, but the Yellow River has a great influence on the landscape pattern of Kaifeng city, because the study area is located near the Yellow River with an abnormal geographic background. Irrigation from the Yellow River made a lot of non-used land turn to farmland, and diverting water from the Yellow River made water area increase greatly.