Abstract:Based on historical remote sensing images of Weifang city in the past 50 years, the scope of the central urban area from the historical images has been extracted by means of manmachine combination in this paper, and statistical analysis on the relevant indexes have been carried out, such as area change, expansion speed and expansion intensity, compactness, fractal dimension and center of gravity migration, so as to find the historical evolution law of central urban expansion in Weifang city. By extracting elements related to urban development, such as water system and road, and analyzing their historical changes, thematic analysis has been carried out to provide data and decisionmaking support for urban development and planning. It is found that the spatial pattern of Weifang city downtown developed eastward at the beginning, forming a triangular star structure with Hanting district and Fangzi district. It has developed into a single central urban structure connected with the east and the west, and finally formed a cross structure between the east and the south in the central urban area of Weifang city.