Abstract: Land use is a science studying the regularity of relation between man and land use. Its fundamental purpose is to realize the sustainable use of land. Though the history of land use research is long, its development history as a real science is very short. China began to compile 1:1000000 Land Use Map of China in 1980s and established its land use subject based on this compiling work. Although there is no such a title as “land use science” in foreign countries yet, the research of land use by most countries and international organizations is developing vigorously. At present time, the branch subjects concerning the study of land in China has increased as many as ten (even reaching 20), forming a scientific group of subjects, namely land science. It is regarded through analysis that land use science has now held the core position in the subject system of land science. Based on the analysis of the research contents in land use science put forward by some scholars, this article has established a new type of research content system for land use science in accordance with the fundamental task of the subject and the national requirement for land use subject in carrying out scientific development outlook and implementing the strategy of sustainable land use. The framework of this new system takes the theory and evaluation methods of sustainable land use as the guideline under the guidance of scientific developing outlook and sustainable developing outlook, and it is based on theories of relevant subjects and supported by scientific research method and the “3S” technology. Following the time scale of land use research, it longitudinally divides the research into three basic parts, the past land use research, current land use research and future land use (namely rational use of land) research, forming the past-present-future land use research system. In addition, according to the developing trend of land use science and China’s actual demand for land use research, this article indicates the orientation for eight research fields in land use subject for a certain period of time in the future.