Using remote-sensing data to study the rapid growth of wind farms and their impact on bird habitat in Yellow Sea Wetland, China

ABSTRACT

As an important migratory bird habitat along the East Asian-Australasian route, the coastal wetlands along the Yellow Sea have experienced significant human losses and threats due to the impact of wind farms. In this study, the radar data was adopted to examine and analyse the spatial and temporal changes of the human-made characteristic areas that caused the change of the migration route of birds in the Yellow Sea from 2015 to 2022. The results show that the areas of impact zones in the study area on water of the Yellow Sea, during the last 8 years, increased 14 times, from 35.7 km² to 506.3 km². The areas of impact zones in the study area on land, during the last 8 years, increased almost two times, from 303.4 km² to 544.2 km², which also has a serious impact on the number of migratory birds. Therefore, China should carefully evaluate the impact and potential threat of domestic wind farms under operation and construction on birds and other wildlife, and provide scientific solutions for the site selection of new wind farms.

KEYWORDS:

• Remote sensing
• geoinformation technologies
• wind farms
• wetlands
• nature reserve

Acknowledgments

This study is financially supported by the National High-Level Foreign Experts Introduction Project, China (G2021014053L) and Project of Introducing Foreign Talents in Jiangsu Province, China (BX2021052). We thank the Introduction of Intelligence Projects for Policy Guidance in Yancheng (YCBX2022011) and Scientific Research Project of Yancheng Polytechnic College (ygy2103).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National High Level Foreign Experts Introduction Project, China [G2021014053L].