The aim of this project is to examine spatial structure and diurnal variations of longwave flux from urban canopy using the techniques of remote sensing and thermal analysis in the context of understanding the current policies of urban design and the principles of design of a sustainable city where the adverse effects of UHI will be mitigated and positive effects will be used. The main advantage of remote sensing techniques is that a very large number of time-synchronised observations can be collected allowing the relations between thermal properties and types of both discrete urban surfaces and urban developments to be analysed in a way not possible with ground data alone in the extremely heterogeneous urban setting. Previous studies have demonstrated that emission of longwave radiation from urban canopies can be successfully measured using both satellite and airborne observations (Roth et al., 1989; Nichol, 1996; Lo et al., 1997; Quattrochi and Ridd, 1998; Voogt and Oke, 1997; 1998; Stone and Rodgers, 2001).