TheLoesspositiveandnegativeterrains(P-Nterrains),whicharewidelydistrib-utedontheLoessPlateau,arediscussedforthefirsttimebyintroducingitscharacteristic,demarcationaswellasextractionmethodfromhigh-resolutionDigitalElevationModels.Us-ing5m-resolutionDEMsasoriginaltestdata,P-Nterrainsof48geomorphologicalunitsindifferentpartsofShaanxiLoessPlateauareextractedaccurately.Thensixindicatorsforde-pictingthegeomorphologiclandscapeandspatialconfigurationcharacteristicofP-Nterrainsareproposed.ThespatialdistributionrulesoftheseindicatorsandtherelationshipbetweentheP-NterrainsandLoessreliefarediscussedforfurtherunderstandingofLoesslandforms.Finally,withtheintegrationofP-Nterrainsandtraditionalterrainindices,aseriesofun-supervisedclassificationmethodsareappliedtomakeaproperlandformclassificationinnorthernShaanxi.ResultsshowthatP-NterrainsareaneffectcluetorevealenergyandsubstancedistributionrulesontheLoessPlateau.AcontinuouschangeofP-NterrainsfromsouthtonorthinShaanxiLoessPlateaushowsanobviousspatialdifferenceofLoessland-formsandthepositiveterrainareaonlyaccountedfor60.5%inthisregion.TheP-Nterrainsparticipantlandformclassificationmethodincreasesvalidityoftheresult,especiallyintheLoesstableland,Loesstableland-ridgeandtheLoesslow-hillarea.ThisresearchissignificantonthestudyofLoesslandformswiththeDigitalTerrainsAnalysismethods.
