This study analyzed the relationship between NDVI(Normalized Difference Vegetation Index) and urban heat island in three cities: Daegu, Kyungju, and Pohang for understanding the degree of nature conservation concentrating in the transition zone of them. Daegu city is the third city in Korea which has a dense population. Kyungju is a traditional city which has good nature. Pohang is an industrial city which has those of characters of Daegu and Kyungju. Landsat 1M data in May 17, 1997 were used for the analysis of heat island. There were about four theoretical models to estimate the surface temperature from TM data: Two-point linear model, Linear regression model, Quadratic regression model, and Cubic regression model. In this study, Linear regression model had been utilized to analyze the urban heat island. On the resultant images, the transition zone of Daegu was urbanized more extremely than those of other two cities. It is thought that the analysis of relationship between NDVI and surface temperature, used in this study, is regarded as one of effective methodologies for urban-environmental detection from satellite imageries.