Analysis of Spatiotemporal Changes in Land Cover of Wind Farms within County Areas

Abstract. The rapid expansion of wind energy has raised growing concerns about its impacts on land cover and the environment. This study focuses on county-level areas with high-density wind farm distribution in the Xing’an League, Inner Mongolia, China. Using high-resolution satellite imagery from 2016 to 2024, we visually interpreted land cover within and around wind farms and analyzed their spatiotemporal dynamics. The results show that: (1) Land cover change in the study area was primarily driven by wind farm expansion, which increased by 130.87 km² (+260.35%) from 2016 to 2024, exhibiting the highest dynamic degree among all land cover categories (LK = +32.54%/yr). (2) Grassland was the most affected land cover type, with 78.74 km² converted to wind farm land, accounting for 59.66% of newly established wind farm area, followed by cultivated land (20.06%) and forest land (18.33%). (3) With wind power expansion, the land cover composition within wind farms shifted from a cultivated land–grassland balance toward grassland dominance. (4) Areas temporarily disturbed by wind farm construction tended to recover progressively, with cultivated land recovering faster than grassland. These findings provide an important basis for assessing the environmental impacts of wind farm development in Inner Mongolia.