Abstract: As a pivotal ecological safeguard in the Yangtze River Delta, the Xin'an River Basin necessitates rigorous surveillance over its vegetation coverage to fully comprehend its shifting characteristics, which is of great significance to the local ecological environment protection. Taking Xin'an River Basin as a case, our study adopts MOD13Q1 data from 2000 to 2021 to unveil the spatial-temporal variability of the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and its persistence of the change through the application of Theil-Sen Median trend analysis, the Mann-Kendall test and Hurst. Furthermore, the study decodes the relationship between NDVI trends, lithology construction, and diverse land usage types. The findings illustrated that the average annual NDVI within the Xin'an River Basin spanned from 0.5 to 0.9 for over two decades, exhibiting a generally upward ebb and flow trend. The pinnacle was recorded during July to September, while the low ebb occurred from January to March, reflecting a distinct "high in mountains, low in hills and plains" distribution characteristics. The NDVI changes are dominated by improvement type, especially the continuous improvement, accounting for over 70％ of the local area, among which 85.71％ of the area were slightly and significantly improved. Upon investigation of the Quaternary and Cretaceous red layer distributed area, the study found a higher proportion of substantial and slight NDVI degradation. Land types suffering pronounced NDVI degradation were construction land, grassland, and cropland, respectively. The conclusions drawn from our research elucidate the spatial-temporal NDVI fluctuations in the Xin'an River Basin, bearing substantial implications for ecological preservation and development in the region.