The impact of onshore wind farms on ecological corridors in Ningbo, China

Abstract

Under the background of the energy transition, the ecosystems are threatened by the rapid expansion of renewable power plants, especially wind turbines with enormous sizes. While the potential ecological influence near wind farms has not been extensively studied. In the process of wind farm site selection, there is no uniform methodology to assess the ecological impact on the local ecosystem. This paper proposed a research framework to quantify the impacts on ecological corridors under the influence of wind farms. Taking five wind farms in Ningbo Peninsula as cases, the geographical data from Landsat 8, NDVI, DEM, and wind turbine data from Vortex were selected from 2010 to 2020. The ecological sources and resistance surfaces were analyzed with and without wind farms under least-cost distance and least-cost path models. The results revealed that wind farms could increase the migration resistance that prevents the species’ ecological corridors, and change the number and routes of main ecological corridors. Additionally, the cumulative resistance value positively correlated with the distance between ecological sources. Through GIS spatial quantification assessment, this paper helps balance wind energy development and regional ecological security and provides scientific and orderly planning suggestions for the healthy development of the regional ecological network.