Resumo. ABSTRACTThe characterization of landscape components and their relationships for the Forestry Experimental Stationof Santa Maria,Rio Grande do Sul state, Brazil, and the monitoring of soil-landscape temporal variationbetween the years 1987 and 2009 (22 years) were performed by means of field surveys and digital mapping vegetation, soil and topography. Crossed the historical information of use and occupation oftransects conducted in 2009, the digital terrain model, maps of land cover for 1987 and 2009 and soil, thusderiving a transitory component landscape, between the plateau border Southern and Central Depression ofRio Grande do Sul state, with a distortion of the natural vegetation types and conflicts of land use, as wellas the influence of topography and soil genesis on the vegetation development. There was expansion in 22years ofEucalyptus andPinuscrops and the natural forest on the anthropic field, especially in areas withArgissolos Bruno-Acinzentados and Argissolos Vermelhos.