As one of the effective ways to study urban climate and environmental problems, the performance of numerical model could be improved in urban areas by enhancing the description of urban morphology. One of the largest challenges faced by researchers is the lack of real urban canopy parameters (UCPs) to represent urban morphological characteristics. In this study, the urban morphological parameters were estimated and a high‐resolution urban morphological parameter data set for the main cities in China was developed. The results show that the distribution of urban morphological parameters is of regional characteristics and cities in China are mainly dominated by low‐rise buildings. Chinese cities can be broadly divided into two types based on the probability distribution of building height: single‐peak and double‐peak. The number of low‐rise buildings in single‐peak cities is much larger than that of double‐peak cities, which contributes to the difference between the two types of cities. The equivalent street width of northern cities in China is higher than that of southern cities, and the equivalent building width is almost the same. However, the default UCPs of the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model distort the morphology of Chinese cities. The sensitivity of the WRF model to urban morphological parameters was also investigated in Nanjing. Overall, our results indicate that urban morphological parameters have a significant influence on the energy balance process in cities and improve the performance of the WRF model in simulating the air temperature and canopy wind speed.

The Surface Urban Energy and Water Balance Scheme (SUEWS) is used to investigate the impact of anthropogenic heat flux QF and irrigation on surface energy balance partitioning in a central business district of Shanghai. Diurnal profiles of QF are carefully derived based on city-specific hourly electricity consumption data, hourly traffic data, and dynamic population density. The QF is estimated to be largest in summer (mean daily peak 236 W m−2). When QF is omitted, the SUEWS sensible heat flux QH reproduces the observed diurnal pattern generally well, but the magnitude is underestimated compared to observations for all seasons. When QF is included, the QH estimates are improved in spring, summer, and autumn but are poorer in winter, indicating winter QF is overestimated. Inclusion of QF has little influence on the simulated latent heat flux QE but improves the storage heat flux estimates except in winter. Irrigation, both amount and frequency, has a large impact on QE. When irrigation is not considered, the simulated QE is underestimated for all seasons. The mean summer daytime QE is largely overestimated compared to observations under continuous irrigation conditions. Model results are improved when irrigation occurs with a 3-day frequency, especially in summer. Results are consistent with observed monthly outdoor water use. This study highlights the importance of appropriately including QF and irrigation in urban land surface models—terms not generally considered in many previous studies.