Strengthen the methods of multi-scale monitoring for urban air pollutants, identified the temporal and spatial development of pollutants and their relationships with the elements of urban ecosystem can provide a scientific basis for comprehensive management and control of urban air quality. This research analyzed the temporal and spatial distribution characteristics of SO₂ column concentration in the troposphere of Lanzhou City from 2006 to 2016, based on OMI, EOS/MODIS satellite images, and other statistical data. The paper further discussed the relationship between the SO₂ concentration and urban structural changes of natural, economic, and social elements, such as NDVI, industrial production, car parc. The results showed that 1) the spatial distribution of SO₂ presented an inhomogeneous characteristic in the troposphere in Lanzhou city, which showed an inverted U-shaped pattern with the low elevation of the valley as the center and decreased on both sides of the northwest and southeast mountain areas. 2) In the past 10 years, the concentration of SO₂ column in Lanzhou was between 0.033-0.25 Dobson unit. It showed the downward trend with an average annual decline of 14%, and with the declining rate of 0.02 Dobson unit/a. 3) The characteristics of atmospheric SO₂ column concentration change of Lanzhou city were closely related to urban industrial production and traffic factors, and also restricted by the meteorological and climatic conditions such as topography and seasonal wind direction. 4) The NDVI index of Lanzhou city was significantly correlated with the concentration of atmospheric SO₂ column. Lanzhou city had a low vegetation coverage, with the vegetation index of 0.09-0.66. It had a limited ability to purify SO₂. Based on the above results, we consider that it is one of the important measures for Lanzhou's atmospheric environmental quality management to increase the surface vegetation coverage by adjusting the structure of urban social, economic, and natural ecosystems, and using appropriate science and technology such as genetic engineering.