The rapid economic development creates huge demands of urban expansion in most global cities. Along with the urbanization, the energy consumption has significantly increased in the recent decades. The resulting anthropogenic heat emission can lead to significant changes in the surface thermal environment on different temporal and spatial scales. We reviewed the related references, and concluded that three methods, including source inventory, mathematical modeling, and surface energy balance, have been used for evaluating anthropogenic heat emission. Current studies are mainly focused on the city, regional, and global scales. The studies conducted on the city scale are concentrated on the temporal dynamics of anthropogenic heat emission, whereas those conducted on the regional and global scales pay close attention to the spatial heterogeneity of anthropogenic heat emission. The regional and global research also focuses on the contribution of anthropogenic heat emission to the global warming and potential climate adaption strategies. After reviewing the related references, we concluded four categories of weak points in the current studies of anthropogenic heat emission. To better understand and quantify the impact of anthropogenic heat emission on the surface thermal environment,we suggest several improvements in the future studies. First, the research conclusions of anthropogenic heat emission depend on different evaluation methods, and they are not easy to evaluate and compare with each other. Although the statistical and mathematic models can assess the anthropogenic heat emission,the in situ monitoring and enormous data collection (Big Data) would better supplement the quantification of anthropogenic heat emission. Second, the research conclusions on city scales cannot be compared with those on the regional and global scales. Selecting appropriate methods for evaluating anthropogenic heat emission should be based on specific temporal and spatial scales. Third,the impact of anthropogenic heat emission lacks connection with landscape ecology. The theories of landscape ecology, such as patch-corridor-matrix, provide useful implications to improve the research on anthropogenic heat emission. Last, the impact of the intensity and dynamics of anthropogenic heat emission on the urban thermal environment have not been quantified enough in the current studies. Thus, it is crucial to understand the anthropogenic heat emission in different scientific fields including ecology, environment science, and building technology.