The interaction between human activities and land cover has important impacts on ecosystems. A study was conducted on the land cover of Shanxi Province to estimate the Human Activity Intensity Index of the Land Surface （HAILS） for the years 2015 and 2020. Spatial analysis was employed to explore the spatial and temporal distribution characteristics of the HAILS in terms of spatial pattern， slope and water flow paths， and correlation indices were used to discuss the validity of the HAILS and explore the influencing factors of its changes. The results indicate that the areas with higher HAILS from 2015 to 2020 were predominantly distributed in the basin and along the Fen River， and the percentage of areas with HAILS values greater than 20% increased in all slope bands. The water flow path results show that the HAILS values of the Fen River and other rivers decreased significantly after 2 km， and the HAILS values of the Fen River were highest both before 20 km and after 28 km.The HAILS was significantly correlated with the actual water consumption and the first， second and third GDP， but weakly correlated with the population density， the GDP and the night light data. Consequently， economic development， industrial structure and ecological protection policy are identified as the primary factors influencing the change of human activity intensity.