Abstract: Land subsidence, which is induced by over-pumping groundwater continuously, has impeded the sustainable economic development in plain areas. As a new subject in disaster research, risk management demands positive prevention instead of passive management. In this paper, the risk management theory was applied to land subsidence research, and the main objectives and methods were discussed in detail. According to the characters of land subsidence, the author pointed out that the risk assessment should include three aspects: the vulnerability assessment, the destructiveness assessment and the resistibility assessment. Furthermore, a primary indicator system of risk assessment was established, some general mathematical models and spatial analysis techniques were also introduced. Finally, a case study was carried out in Suzhou-Wuxi-Changzhou area.The result shows that the infringement caused by the same level of land subsidence is more serious in developed areas than in underdeveloped ones. Therefore, to strengthen the risk resistibility, enhancing the disaster prevention inputs is suggested.