This paper discusses transitions in land use evidenced by the case of the Suoi Muoi catchment area in NW mountain of Vietnam. Land use transitions were detected from LANDSAT and SPOT satellite images taken over the last 40 years. The maps showing changes in land use were linked with biophysical properties of the land such as slope gradient, elevation and soil type, and cultural char-acteristic of various ethnic groups by means of logistic regression model. The combination of research methods and instruments from several disciplines, including statisti-cal spatial analysis such as the multiple logistic regression (MLR) models and the multiple correspondence analysis (MCA) on household interview data, and key informant interviews allowed us to identify and validate a number of factors that drive land cover and land use changes in Northwest Vietnam.