The satellite remote sensing data of the Yangtze River Delta in 1993 and 2004 were taken to analyze land use changes and urban growth of Nanjing,Shanghai,and Suzhou-Wuxi-Changzhou regions in the Yangtze River Delta.The land surface temperature (LST) in 2004 was selected as the indicator to estimate the difference of thermal characteristics between urban and rural area.The relationship of spatial characteristics of LST and types of land-use had also been analyzed.Conclusions were drawn as follows:the changes of the urbanized and cultivated lands were great during the past 11 years.The amount of cultivated land was decreasing,while the amount of construction and building land was rapidly increasing.The dynamic degrees of construction and building land among Shanghai,Suzhou-Wuxi-Changzhou and Nanjing regions were 204.0%,354.3% and 99.2%,respectively.The expansion of construction land was the largest in Suzhou-Wuxi-Changzhou region.The LST of urban area was the largest among all land-use.The seasonal LST differences between urban and rural regions were maximum in winter andminimum in autumn.