[Objective] This study aimed at revealing the relationship between thermal environment and land use changes in time and space in Qingdao area, in order to provide the basis for environmental planning and management. [Method] The Landsat TM/ETM⁺ data were used to inverse the surface temperature and to interpret the land use types. The mean and standard deviation of temperature of different land use types were compared, the impact indies of heat environment were calculated and the GIS trajectory was analyzed.[Results] The type of unused land, urban, industrial, residential lands had the highest surface temperature among all the types of land use while water type had the lowest temperature from 1990 to 2010; cultivated land contributed most to the thermal effect; unused land, urban, industrial, residential lands had the most plots with higher temperature than the average; cultivated land plots in which temperature was higher than the average temperature, accounted for the most proportion of the total area; the proportion of urban, rural areas, industrial, residential lands which had higher temperature than the average increased obviously over time; the area of urban heat island migrated to northeast from 1990 to 2010, and from 2000 to 2010, urban heat island center and the city center migrated to the same direction.[Conclusion] Thermal environment and land use change of Qingdao area have a close relationship, and urban expansion has gradually become the main reason for the formation of the heat island effect.