Impact of large-scale vegetation restoration project on summer land surface temperature on the Loess Plateau, China

Large-scale vegetation restoration greatly changed the soil erosion environment in the Loess Plateau since the implementation of the “Grain for Green Project” (GGP) in 1999. Evaluating the effects of vegetation restoration on soil erosion is significant to local soil and water conservation and vegetation construction. Taking the Ansai Watershed as the case area, this study calculated the soil erosion modulus from 2000 to 2015 under the initial and current scenarios of vegetation restoration, using the Chinese Soil Loess Equation (CSLE), based on rainfall and soil data, remote sensing images and socio-economic data. The effect of vegetation restoration on soil erosion was evaluated by comparing the average annual soil erosion modulus under two scenarios among 16 years. The results showed: (1) vegetation restoration significantly changed the local land use, characterized by the conversion of farmland to grassland, arboreal land, and shrub land. From 2000 to 2015, the area of arboreal land, shrub land, and grassland increased from 19.46 km2, 19.43 km2, and 719.49 km2 to 99.26 km2, 75.97 km2, and 1084.24 km2; while the farmland area decreased from 547.90 km2 to 34.35 km2; (2) the average annual soil erosion modulus from 2000 to 2015 under the initial and current scenarios of vegetation restoration was 114.44 t/(hm²·a) and 78.42 t/(hm²·a), respectively, with an average annual reduction of 4.81 × 106 t of soil erosion amount thanks to the vegetation restoration; (3) the dominant soil erosion intensity changed from “severe and light erosion” to “moderate and light erosion”, vegetation restoration greatly improved the soil erosion environment in the study area; (4) areas with increased erosion and decreased erosion were alternately distributed, accounting for 48% and 52% of the total land area, and mainly distributed in the northwest and southeast of the watershed, respectively. Irrational land use changes in local areas (such as the conversion of farmland and grassland into construction land, etc.) and the ineffective implementation of vegetation restoration are the main reasons leading to the existence of areas with increased erosion.

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Further evidence of impacts of large-scale wind farms on land surface temperature

Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews ◽

10.1016/j.rser.2012.07.004 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 16 (8) ◽

pp. 6432-6437 ◽

Cited By ~ 21

Author(s):

Jenell M. Walsh-Thomas ◽

Guido Cervone ◽

Peggy Agouris ◽

Germana Manca

Keyword(s):

Surface Temperature ◽

Land Surface Temperature ◽

Land Surface ◽

Large Scale ◽

Wind Farms

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Spatio-temporal sensitivity of MODIS land surface temperature anomalies indicates high potential for large-scale land cover change detection in Arctic permafrost landscapes

Remote Sensing of Environment ◽

10.1016/j.rse.2015.06.017 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 168 ◽

pp. 1-12 ◽

Cited By ~ 34

Author(s):

S. Muster ◽

M. Langer ◽

A. Abnizova ◽

K.L. Young ◽

J. Boike

Keyword(s):

Land Cover ◽

Surface Temperature ◽

Land Cover Change ◽

Land Surface Temperature ◽

Land Surface ◽

Large Scale ◽

Modis Land Surface Temperature ◽

Spatio Temporal ◽

Large Scale Land ◽

Land Cover Change Detection

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A Case Study of Land-Surface-Temperature Impact from Large-Scale Deployment of Wind Farms in China from Guazhou

Remote Sensing ◽

10.3390/rs8100790 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 8 (10) ◽

pp. 790 ◽

Cited By ~ 10

Author(s):

Rui Chang ◽

Rong Zhu ◽

Peng Guo

Keyword(s):

Surface Temperature ◽

Land Surface Temperature ◽

Land Surface ◽

Large Scale ◽

Wind Farms ◽

Temperature Impact

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Effect of Ecological Construction Engineering on Vegetation Restoration: A Case Study of the Loess Plateau

Remote Sensing ◽

10.3390/rs13081407 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (8) ◽

pp. 1407

Author(s):

Lina Xiu ◽

Xiaojun Yao ◽

Mengdie Chen ◽

Changzhen Yan

Keyword(s):

Ecological Restoration ◽

Loess Plateau ◽

Large Scale ◽

Structural Changes ◽

Ecological Engineering ◽

Vegetation Restoration ◽

The Loess Plateau ◽

Large Area ◽

Forest Protection ◽

Ecological Construction

Since the 1980s, with rapid economic development and increased attention given to ecological protection, China has launched a series of ecological-restoration programs to restore the local environment through afforestation and natural forest protection. The evaluation of vegetation restoration is an important part of evaluating the effectiveness of ecological restoration. The Loess Plateau is an area where ecological problems are concentrated, and it is a key area of ecological construction in China. This paper takes the Loess Plateau as the research area, using remote sensing and geographic information technology combined with ecosystem structural changes and an improved residual model to study vegetation restoration. The following main conclusions were drawn: (1) From 1990 to 2000, the farmland area increased by 3084.81 km2, resulting in the encroachment of a large area of grassland and shrubland. (2) With the implementation of ecological engineering, the area of returning farmland to forest and grassland reached 18,001.88 km2; in this period, the NDVI of vegetation increased rapidly, and the area that increased comprised 91.90% of the total area, of which the area of significant increase reached 65.78%. The quality of vegetation was restored to a great extent, and ecological engineering played a major role in this stage. (3) Under the background of large-scale implementation of ecological restoration, the urban area of the Loess Plateau continues to expand.

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The seasonal characteristics of the breeze circulation at a coastal Mediterranean site in South Italy

Advances in Science and Research ◽

10.5194/asr-4-47-2010 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 4 (1) ◽

pp. 47-56 ◽

Cited By ~ 10

Author(s):

S. Federico ◽

L. Pasqualoni ◽

A. M. Sempreviva ◽

L. De Leo ◽

E. Avolio ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Surface Temperature ◽

Land Surface Temperature ◽

Land Surface ◽

Large Scale ◽

Land Breeze ◽

Breeze Circulation ◽

Local Circulation ◽

Coastal Site ◽

Local Climate ◽

Hourly Data

Abstract. We present a study on the characteristics of the sea breeze flow at a coastal site located in the centre of the Mediterranean basin at the southern tip of Italy. This study is finalized to add new data on breeze circulations over a narrow peninsula and present a unique experimental coastal site at about 600 m from the coastline in a flat open area at the foot of a mountain chain located in a region of complex orography. We study the seasonal behaviour of the sea-land breeze circulation by analysing two years of hourly data of wind speed and direction, temperature, radiation and relative humidity from a surface meteorological station, eighteen-months data from a wind profiler, and two-year data from the ECMWF analysis. Results show that breezes dominate the local circulation and play a major role for the local climate. They are modulated by the season, through the sea-land temperature difference and the large-scale flow. The large-scale forcing acts in phase with the diurnal breeze and opposes the nocturnal breeze. In summer, the daytime difference between the land surface temperature and the SST (Sea Surface Temperature) reaches its maximum, while the nigh-time difference has its minimum. This causes a strong, frequent and intense diurnal breeze and a weak nocturnal breeze. In winter and fall the nocturnal difference between the sea and land surface temperature reaches a maximum value, while the diurnal difference is at its minimum value. This causes a strong, frequent and intense nocturnal breeze despite of the large-scale forcing that is usually opposed to local-scale flow.

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Impact of Initialized Land Surface Temperature and Snowpack on Subseasonal to Seasonal Prediction Project, Phase I (LS4P-I): Organization and Experimental design

10.5194/gmd-2020-329 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Yongkang Xue ◽

Tandong Yao ◽

Aaron A. Boone ◽

Ismaila Diallo ◽

Ye Liu ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Tibetan Plateau ◽

Surface Temperature ◽

Land Surface Temperature ◽

Land Surface ◽

Large Scale ◽

Initial Conditions ◽

Yangtze River Basin ◽

Seasonal Prediction ◽

High Mountain ◽

The Tibetan Plateau

Abstract. Sub-seasonal to seasonal (S2S) prediction, especially the prediction of extreme hydroclimate events such as droughts and floods, is not only scientifically challenging but has substantial societal impacts. Motivated by preliminary studies, the Global Energy and Water Exchanges (GEWEX)/Global Atmospheric System Study (GASS) has launched a new initiative called Impact of initialized Land Surface temperature and Snowpack on Sub-seasonal to Seasonal Prediction (LS4P), as the first international grass-root effort to introduce spring land surface temperature (LST)/subsurface temperature (SUBT) anomalies over high mountain areas as a crucial factor that can lead to significant improvement in precipitation prediction through the remote effects of land/atmosphere interactions. LS4P focuses on process understanding and predictability, hence it is different from, and complements, other international projects that focus on the operational S2S prediction. More than forty groups worldwide have participated in this effort, including 21 Earth System Models, 9 regional climate models, and 7 data groups. This paper overviews the history and objectives of LS4P, provides the first phase experimental protocol (LS4P-I) which focuses on the remote effect of the Tibetan Plateau, discusses the LST/SUBT initialization, and presents the preliminary results. Multi-model ensemble experiments and analyses of observational data have revealed that the hydroclimatic effect of the spring LST in the Tibetan Plateau is not limited to the Yangtze River basin but may have a significant large-scale impact on summer precipitation and its S2S prediction. LS4P models are unable to preserve the initialized LST anomalies in producing the observed anomalies largely for two main reasons: i) inadequacies in the land models arising from total soil depths which are too shallow and the use of simplified parameterizations which both tend to limit the soil memory; and ii) reanalysis data, that are used for initial conditions, have large discrepancies from the observed mean state and anomalies of LST over the Tibetan Plateau. Innovative approaches have been developed to largely overcome these problems.

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Global Land Surface Temperature Change (2003–2017) and Its Relationship with Climate Drivers: AIRS, MODIS, and ERA5-Land Based Analysis

Remote Sensing ◽

10.3390/rs13010044 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 13 (1) ◽

pp. 44

Author(s):

Jiang Liu ◽

Daniel Fiifi Tawia Hagan ◽

Yi Liu

Keyword(s):

Surface Temperature ◽

Land Surface Temperature ◽

Land Surface ◽

Large Scale ◽

Critical Role ◽

Longwave Radiation ◽

Reanalysis Data ◽

Surface Solar Radiation ◽

Surface Temperature Change ◽

Spatio Temporal

Land surface temperature (LST) plays a critical role in the water cycle and energy balance at global and regional scales. Large-scale LST estimates can be obtained from satellite observations and reanalysis data. In this study, we first investigate the long-term changes of LST during 2003–2017 on a per-pixel basis using three different datasets derived from (i) the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) onboard Aqua satellite, (ii) the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) also aboard Aqua, and (iii) the recently released ERA5-Land reanalysis data. It was found that the spatio-temporal patterns of these data agree very well. All three products globally showed an uptrend in the annual average LST during 2003–2017 but with considerable spatial variations. The strongest increase was found over the region north of 45° N, particularly over Asian Russia, whereas a slight decrease was observed over Australia. The regression analysis indicated that precipitation (P), incoming surface solar radiation (SW↓), and incoming surface longwave radiation (LW↓) can together explain the inter-annual LST variations over most regions, except over tropical forests, where the inter-annual LST variation is low. Spatially, the LST changes during 2003–2017 over the region north of 45° N were mainly influenced by LW↓, while P and SW↓ played a more important role over other regions. A detailed look at Asian Russia and the Amazon rainforest at a monthly time scale showed that warming in Asian Russia is dominated by LST increases in February–April, which are closely related with the simultaneously increasing LW↓ and clouds. Over the southern Amazon, the most apparent LST increase is found in the dry season (August–September), primarily affected by decreasing P. In addition, increasing SW↓ associated with decreasing atmospheric aerosols was another factor found to cause LST increases. This study shows a high level of consistency among LST trends derived from satellite and reanalysis products, thus providing more robust characteristics of the spatio-temporal LST changes during 2003–2017. Furthermore, the major climatic drivers of LST changes during 2003–2017 were identified over different regions, which might help us predict the LST in response to changing climate in the future.

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Spatio-Temporal Relationship between Land Cover and Land Surface Temperature in Urban Areas: A Case Study in Geneva and Paris

ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information ◽

10.3390/ijgi9100593 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 9 (10) ◽

pp. 593

Author(s):

Xu Ge ◽

Dasaraden Mauree ◽

Roberto Castello ◽

Jean-Louis Scartezzini

Keyword(s):

Surface Temperature ◽

Land Surface Temperature ◽

Land Surface ◽

Urban Areas ◽

Large Scale ◽

Health Management ◽

Spatial Lag Model ◽

Green Area ◽

Cooling Effects ◽

Grid Based

Currently, more than half of the world’s population lives in cities, which leads to major changes in land use and land surface temperature (LST). The associated urban heat island (UHI) effects have multiple impacts on energy consumption and human health. A better understanding of how different land covers affect LST is necessary for mitigating adverse impacts, and supporting urban planning and public health management. This study explores a distance-based, a grid-based and a point-based analysis to investigate the influence of impervious surfaces, green area and waterbodies on LST, from large (distance and grid based analysis with 400 m grids) to smaller (point based analysis with 30 m grids) scale in the two mid-latitude cities of Paris and Geneva. The results at large scale confirm that the highest LST was observed in the city centers. A significantly positive correlation was observed between LST and impervious surface density. An anticorrelation between LST and green area density was observed in Paris. The spatial lag model was used to explore the spatial correlation among LST, NDBI, NDVI and MNDWI on a smaller scale. Inverse correlations between LST and NDVI and MNDWI, respectively, were observed. We conclude that waterbodies display the greatest mitigation on LST and UHI effects both on the large and smaller scale. Green areas play an important role in cooling effects on the smaller scale. An increase of evenly distributed green area and waterbodies in urban areas is suggested to lower LST and mitigate UHI effects.

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