Abstract: The alternative stable states (ASS) of coastal wetlands is the results of long-term mutual feeding and coupling between dynamics, geomorphology and vegetation, and is closely related to the landscape structures, ecological functions and healthy sustainable development of ecosystem. ASS is also the core problem of coastal wetland ecological research. Focus on the evolution of ASS, this article selected the coastal wetland in Zhangjiang Estuary as the study area. Multi-temporal remote sensing images and the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) "kurtosis" determination, threshold segmentation, information entropy theory were used to identify the characteristics and evolution of ASS and its driving factors in different times, and the orderliness of the ASS of the coastal wetland ecosystem was analyzed based on the changes of information entropy. Results showed the ASS of the coastal wetland in Zhangjiang Estuary have changed from monostable to multistable structure with significant evolution stages. The invasion of Spartina alterniflora led to a gradual transformation of ASS and finally formed the “Mangrove- S. alterniflora-Mudflat” stable states, while the land use of mudflat culture inhibited the expansion of S. alterniflora and in a sense, maintained the stability of ASS. Under the joint actions of natural processes and human activities, the coastal wetland in Zhangjiang Estuary was in the self-adaptive adjustment with an altered increasing of information entropy, indicating the ecosystem was in disordered development. In the future, the expansion of S. alterniflora and corresponding restoration plan should be paid more attention to support stable and orderly development of the coastal wetland ecosystem.