Based on the acquaintance of the regional background of urban-rural transforma-tional development and investigations on the spot, this paper discusses the holistic situation, dominant factors and mechanism of arable land loss and land for construction occupation in the coastal area of China over the last decade, with the aid of GIS technology. Conclusions of the research are summarized as follows: (1) the arable land had been continuously de-creasing from 1996 to 2005, with a loss of 1,708,700 hm² and an average decrement of 170,900 hm² per year; (2) land for construction increased 1,373,700 hm², with an average increment of 153,200 hm² per year; (3) total area of encroachment on arable land for con-struction between 1996 and 2005 was 1,053,100 hm², accounting for 34.03% of the arable land loss in the same period, the percentages of which used for industrial land (INL), trans-portation land (TRL), rural construction land (RUL) and town construction land (TOL) are 45.03%, 15.8%, 15.47% and 11.5%, respectively; and (4) the fluctuation of the increase of construction land and encroachment on arable land in the area were deeply influenced by the nation’s macroscopic land-use policies and development level of regional economy. The growth of population and advancement of technology promoted the rapid industrialization, construction of transportation infrastructures, rural urbanization and expansion of rural set-tlements in the eastern coastal area, and therefore were the primary driving forces of land-use conversion.