Abstract: In order to construct indicator system of the cultivated land intensive use appraisal and compare two appraisal methods to find the difference of intensive use scores, this paper takes cultivated land intensive use in Three Gorges Reservoir Area as researching object, and connects closely the concept of land intensive use. Principal component analysis (PCA) and analytic hierarchy process (AHP) were used to calculate the intensive use scores in 21 counties according to the same appraisal indicator system. In the same time, the appraisal results were compared and the results showed that difference of appraisal results order was small. The intensive use scores were divided into four grades, the spatial difference of grades were implemented by the ARCGIS 9.2. The distributions of intensive use scores took on evident consistency. Impact trend of contribution by PCA was similar to weight trend of code layer by AHP. Above all, on one hand, this paper can improve the accuracy of intensive use appraisal, on the other hand, give some advices to enhance intensive use degree of cultivated land in Three Gorges Reservoir Area.