With the influence of natural and anthropogenic factors such as sediment deposition, reservoir operation, lake reclamation, shoreline encroachment and destruction, the lake shoreline of Lake Dongting area has changed significantly. However, the results based on remote sensing interpretation are still lacking to reveal its evolution processes so far. Based on the multi-source remote sensing imagery from 1986 to 2022, the range of vegetation zone in the east Lake Dongting, south Lake Dongting and Lake Muping were identified and extracted to analyze evolution processes of the lake shoreline using the threshold division methods, such as NDVI and maximum value composite combining with Otsu and visual interpretation. Through raster calculation, the annual expansion and erosion area relative to the previous year, as well as the spatial distribution in 1986, 1990, 2000, 2010 and 2020 of vegetation zone were obtained. The results showed that the area of vegetation zone in Lake Dongting presented a general trend of expansion, and the proportion of expansion and erosion showed spatiotemporal differences. The water area enclosed by the natural shoreline decreased by 144.84, 191.42 and 80.48 km², with a reduction rate of 27.83%, 39.20% and 48.26%, respectively. The analysis using the digital shoreline analysis system showed that the average annual moving distance of the natural shoreline in the tail zone of the east branch of Ouchi River entering the east Lake Dongting was 45 m. The maximum and minimum distance of the net shoreline movement was 3281 and 386.93 m, respectively, and the coefficient of determination of the average linear regression was 0.68. In general, the sediment erosion and deposition and water lever change are the main driving force for the change of the natural lake shoreline in Lake Dongting, and sand mining activities have caused the erosion in the local area.