Abstract: Taking the lake basins of Central Yunnan Plateau as the research object, we analyzed the change characteristics of landscape elements from 2000 to 2020 based on which we analyzed the landscape pattern index, and the spatial and temporal distribution characteristics of landscape ecological risk by constructing a landscape ecological risk evaluation model and a spatial autocorrelation model. The results show that: From 2000 to 2020, cultivated land and forest land were always the substrate landscapes of lake basins of Central Yunnan Plateau, and the landscapes with the smallest area were always unutilized land. During the study period, the ecological risk of the landscape in lake basins of Central Yunnan Plateau improved, with the area of low-risk area increasing and the area of medium-high-risk area decreasing. From 2000 to 2020, except for the sub-dimension index, each landscape pattern index of unutilized land in the study area was the highest. Overall, the degree of grassland fragmentation and loss is higher and shows an increasing trend, the degree of separation and disturbance of construction land is higher and shows a decreasing trend, and the sub-dimension of the watershed has a large gap with the sub-dimension of the rest of the landscape types. From the global spatial autocorrelation analysis, it can be seen that over the past 20 years, the ecological risk index of basin landscapes has shown a positive correlation and spatial agglomeration in spatial distribution is on the rise; from the local spatial autocorrelation analysis, it can be seen that during the study period, the "high–high" clusters are mainly distributed in the junction of Wuhua District, Xishan District, Guandu District, and Panlong District, and the junction of Chenggong District and Chengjiang City, and the "low–low" clusters are mainly distributed in the lakes and their surroundings and the areas where the vegetation grows densely. The study will play a positive role in the ecological remediation in lake basins of Central Yunnan Plateau, and also provide a strong support for regional ecological protection and sustainable development.