Abstract: Bosten Lake is located in the northwest arid region, which is the largest inland freshwater lake in China and sensitive to global climate change. The study on vegetation cover change and its driving forces in Bosten Lake Basin would have great significance to understand response of regional vegetation cover change to global climate change and water resources assessment. Vegetation cover change and its driving forces under the condition of global climate change were analyzed by MODIS NDVI images of 16 days synthetic from 2001 to 2013, DEM data with 30 m resolution. The results showed that: (1) vegetation growing season began in late April and ends in late October in Bosten Lake Basin, in the vegetation growing season, vegetation NDVI showed no significant decreasing trend, in different elevation ranges, increasing trends showed in the range of 891 m to 1500 m and of 3501 m to 4808 m, while decreasing trend showed in the range of 1501 m to 3500 m; (2) vegetation NDVI showed decreasing trend from 2001 to 2013 in Bosten Lake, which accounted for 61.80% while increasing trend accounted for 36.60%, the region of increasing trend mainly distributed in the southeast of basin, southeast and northwest of Bosten Lake, as well as the central part of basin’s northwest area, other regions showed decreasing trend, furthermore, increasing trend distributed in the range of 891 m to 2000 m and of 3501-4808 m, other range showed decreasing trend; (3) both climate change and human activities influenced vegetation changes in Bosten Lake Basin, however, the higher altitude area was mainly influenced by climate change while the lower by human activities.