ObjectiveTo investigate the spatial and temporal variations and the driving factors of the vegetation cover in Panzhihua City, and to provide a theoretical basis for Panzhihua City to formulate regional ecological environmental protection programs and maintain regional ecological balance.MethodsBased on Landsat-EVI data, in combination with natural and socio-economic data, the characteristics and driving factors of the vegetation cover in Panzhihua City during the period of 1990—2020 were analyzed with the help of dimidiate pixel model, Theil-Sen Median trend test, partial correlation and optimal parameter geographic detector model.ResultsThe spatial distribution of the vegetation cover (FVC) in Panzhihua City was characterized by 'low in the south and high in the north', with high-grade vegetation cover dominating. The FVC ranged from 0.635—0.792, with the area of degraded area accounting for 17.70% and the area of improved area accounting for 44.97% from 1990 to 2020. The area proportion of areas where FVC was positively correlated with precipitation and air temperature was 61.87% and 57.40%, respectively. Land use type, elevation, and air temperature were the main influencing factors of the spatial differentiation of FVC, with the influence being above 0.20; most of the interactions among the factors were shown to be enhanced, among which, the influence can be increased to 43.00% after the coupling of slope direction and air temperature; the influences of the driving factors on the growth of vegetation in the study area had their appropriate ranges.ConclusionsFrom 1990 to 2020 FVC showed an overall upward trend, but the vegetation degradation was obvious in some areas. In the future, regional vegetation construction should be focused on the terrain distribution pattern and climate change when optimizing the land-use pattern, in order to cope with the challenges of sustainable development of vegetation ecosystems under environmental evolution.