Accurate delineation of regional production-living-ecological space can contribute to the ecological civilization construction in China, particularly to the territorial spatial planning and management in recent years. A multi-functional framework of land use can also be taken as the guidance of delineation practice. Moreover, the dominant land function can be highlighted to consider the temporal and spatial change, as well as the current land use. Taking Lishui district, Nanjing City, Jiangsu Province as an example, the land-use multi-functions and the suitability of production, living, ecological spaces were evaluated to delineate the production-living-ecological space, considering the suitability, land-use multi-functions, and change trends from 2006 to 2016. The results showed that: 1) The production and living functions decreased in the study area, whereas, the ecological function increased during the past decade. The trend was in line with the overall urban and rural development strategy in the study area. Specifically, the areas with high values of production function were Yongyang town and Dongping town in 2006, but the development zone and Yongyang town in 2016. The areas with high values of living function were the development zone and Yongyang town both in 2006 and 2016. The area with high values of ecological function was Yongyang town in 2006, but Yongyang town and Jingqiao town in 2016. Furthermore, the areas with low function values were also changed from 2006 to 2016. There was a positive correlation between the spatial distribution of the production function and the living function. The towns with higher production functions usually presented higher income levels and living standards, where the infrastructure construction, in turn, promoted the optimization and transformation of production structure. The spatial distribution of ecological function indicated a negative correlation with the production function and the living function, due mainly to the functional orientation of each town. 2) There was the greatest difference in the values of production space, among the suitability values of production, living, and ecological spaces in the study area, indicating a high correlation with the distribution of cultivated land. There were no significantly different values of living space, but the mean value was the highest. Besides, the values presented an obvious "ring" and "block" distribution patterns in the whole area, particularly decreasing from the center of town to the surroundings. The mean value of ecological space was slightly lower than that of living space and evenly distributed among the towns. 3) The coupling coordination degree of comprehensive evaluation on the production, living, and ecological spaces in each town was higher than that of the suitability evaluation data. As such, the production-living-ecological space was then delineated, according to the comprehensive evaluation. Specifically, three spaces accounted for 39.63%, 22.72%, and 37.65% of the study area, respectively. The production space was concentrated in the middle and northwest of Lishui district, where the space areas were relatively average in the towns. The living space was mainly distributed in the middle, where the space areas varied with different towns. The ecological space was distributed in the south. Consequently, the precision and coordination were higher in the production-living-ecological space in terms of land-use suitability and multi-functions. The findings can provide a sound reference for territorial spatial planning in the study area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]