The Three Gorges Reservoir Area is an important ecological barrier in southwest of China.Vegetation changes and their responses to climatic factors can reflect the status of the ecosystem in the Three Gorges Reservoir Area.Therefore,taking MOD13Q1 data of 250 m spatial resolution and meteorological data of 32 meteorological observatories in the Three Gorges Reservoir Area and its surrounding areas as data source,the spatial and temporal variation of SINDVI(seasonally integrated normalized difference vegetation index) in the Three Gorges Reservoir Area from 2001 to 2016 was studied and its climate driving factors were analyzed using trend analysis and correlation analysis methods.The results show that:1) SINDVI shows a trend of increasing in the Three Gorges Reservoir Area in the past 16 years.The higher SINDVI regions tend to move west.2) The higher SINDVI regions are mainly distributed in the eastern,northern and southern parts of the Three Gorges Reservoir Area,and their vegetation cover keeps stable or becomes higher.However,SINDVI values are getting lower and the vegetation cover fluctuates more due to frequent human activities in the western and the Yangtze River bank.3) The correlation between monthly maximum NDVI and temperature in the Three Gorges Reservoir Area is higher than that between monthly maximum NDVI and precipitation,and the partial correlation coefficient shows the law of crops > grassland and shrubs > broadleaf forest > coniferous forest.The driving force analysis shows that the crop area in the Three Gorges Reservoir Area is mostly affected by both temperature and precipitation,while the woodland,shrubbery and grassland are mostly affected by temperature.In general,the monthly maximum NDVI response to climatic factors in the Three Gorges Reservoir Area has obvious differences in vegetation types and spatial heterogeneity.It is also necessary to consider different time scales and more influence factors for further study.