Objective      To analyze the epidemic characteristics of malaria in different geographic environments in Hainan province

and explore potentially important environmental determinants of malaria.       Methods      Remote sensing data products of Hainan province were collected from NASA LAADS web and SRTM data

and land cover types as well as altitudes were extracted from the products by ArcGIS 10.0 software. The thematic maps of spatial distribution were produced by combining malaria data to detect the features of land cover types and altitudes

and then to compare the incidence variation of malaria in different environments.       Results      The malaria incidence in Hainan province was considerably decreased from 2004 to 2012

and exhibited obvious seasonal variation. The malaria data from 2004 to 2008 were selected to conduct the spatial distribution analysis. The results showed that the incidence of malaria in the south central part of Hainan province was higher than that in the north. The majority of geographical characteristics were forest land in the south central part of Hainan province

and were grass land in the north. Multivariate analysis demonstrated that evergreen broadleaf forest land (mean elevation of 743 meters) was risk factor of malaria epidemics. On the contrary

needle-leaf forest land (mean elevation of 63 meters) and cropland (mean elevation of 263 meters) were protective factors.       Conclusion      The malaria incidence exhibited significant spatial distribution characteristics in land cover types and land use types

which could be further used to predict malaria epidemics.