The impact of macro-scale urban form on land surface temperature: An empirical study based on climate zone, urban size and industrial structure in China

•Measure macro-scale urban form by “compactness”, “boundary complexity”, “shape”, and “contiguity”.•Verify the impact of urban form on LST varies with climatic zone, urban area size, and industrial structure.•Dummy variables are employed to further capture differences within groups.•Compare the existing research with paradoxical conclusions and conclude this inconsistency derives from various city characteristics.•Propose workable urban planning policies to ameliorate the urban thermal environment in different scenarios. While previous studies revealed that urban form optimization could alleviate the urban heat island (UHI) effect, empirical studies have often documented paradoxical conclusions on the impacts of urban form on land surface temperature (LST). To examine whether the effect of urban form on LST varies across cities, data on 266 Chinese cities are used to conduct OLS regression analyses. These cities are divided into three groups: cities in different climatic zones, cities with different urban area sizes, and cities with different industrial structures. The results show that, at the national scale, LST (in summer daytime) is negatively correlated with compactness, boundary complexity, and urban shape but positively correlated with contiguity. However, these effects are heterogeneous across cities. Specifically, contiguity exhibits a relatively stronger influence on LST in cities located in Temperate and Warm-temperate zones. Compactness and urban shape significantly impact LST in small-sized, medium-sized cities and megacities, while the effects are insignificant in large-sized cities. Polycentric shape for industrial cities elevates LST. Several practical policy implications for urban planning under different scenarios are proposed to ameliorate the UHI effect. This study could contribute to the alleviation of the UHI effect in regions whose climate characteristics and development levels are similar to those of China.