National assessment reveals widespread wind farm impacts on land surface temperature and vegetation in China

Li, Z., Li, Y., Qin, Y., Liu, L., Bach, E. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9725-0203, Armstrong, A., Li, G., Li, M., Wang, Z., Bai, Y. and Chen, Z. (2026) National assessment reveals widespread wind farm impacts on land surface temperature and vegetation in China. Geography and sustainability, 7 (3). 100460. ISSN 2666-6839 doi: 10.1016/j.geosus.2026.100460

Abstract/Summary

The rapid development of wind energy in China since 2000 has raised concerns about its impacts on local climate and vegetation. Despite regional and local studies, a comprehensive national assessment is lacking. Here, we analyzed the effects of 675 onshore wind farms, representing >90,000 identified wind turbines in China, on land surface temperature (LST) and vegetation using Moderate-resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) satellite data from 2003 to 2022. We found a daytime cooling effect of -0.05 ± 0.48 °C (mean ± STD) and a nighttime warming effect of 0.06 ± 0.28 °C across all wind farms. The construction of wind farm infrastructure initially reduced peak normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) by -0.006 ± 0.036, and this adverse impact weakened over time (-0.004 after 7 years), indicating vegetation recovery. The wind farm impacts varied by land cover type. The nighttime warming was largest for barren lands (0.19 °C), followed by croplands (0.10 °C), grasslands (0.07 °C), and forests (0.01 °C). These differences contributed to increasing night warming from southern to northern China. The adverse vegetation impacts were largest for forests (-0.010), followed by grasslands (-0.008) and barren lands (-0.003), with croplands (0.001) being almost unaffected. Correlation analysis identified precipitation and mean LST as significant factors influencing spatial variations in nighttime LST impact, with greater vegetation decline reinforcing night warming. Our large-scale analysis provides comprehensive evidence of the heterogeneous environmental impacts of wind farms across China, informing the sustainable development of wind energy.

Item Type	Article
URI	https://centaur.reading.ac.uk/id/eprint/129261
Identification Number/DOI	10.1016/j.geosus.2026.100460
Refereed	Yes
Divisions	Science > School of Mathematical, Physical and Computational Sciences > National Centre for Earth Observation (NCEO) Interdisciplinary Research Centres (IDRCs) > Centre for the Mathematics of Planet Earth (CMPE) Science > School of Mathematical, Physical and Computational Sciences > Department of Mathematics and Statistics Science > School of Mathematical, Physical and Computational Sciences > Department of Meteorology
Publisher	Elsevier
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