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What are the effects of vegetation clearing during the construction phase of a Wind Farm development? 

Normalized Difference Vegetation Index
Threatened species
Species richness
Vegetation (pathology)
Moderate-resolution imaging spectroradiometer
Best insight from top research papers

Vegetation clearing during wind farm construction has significant environmental impacts. Studies show that wind farms in Puerto Madryn cleared 996 hectares of vegetation, amounting to 0.81% of the city area . Additionally, wind farms in protected areas like Dealurile Agighiolului Natura 2000 site in Romania have caused disturbances to rare, endemic, and threatened plant species, leading to incomplete recovery even after ten years of restoration efforts . The construction of wind farms alters land surface temperature and vegetation, with a warming effect on nighttime temperatures and a decrease in vegetation health, particularly in grasslands and croplands . These findings emphasize the need for sustainable practices to minimize the ecological footprint of wind farm developments.

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Papers (5)Insight
Open access•Journal Article•DOI
Impacts of 319 wind farms on surface temperature and vegetation in the United States
Ying Qin, Yan Li, Ru Xu, Chengcheng Hou, Alona Armstrong, Eviatar Bach, Yang-Mu Wang, Bojie Fu 
10 Jan 2022-Environmental Research Letters
4 Citations
During wind farm construction, vegetation clearing leads to a decrease in peak normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) for 59% of wind farms, with an average reduction of 0.0067 compared to non-wind farm areas.
Open access
Large-eddy simulation study of effects of clearing in forest on wind turbines
Johanna Matsfelt, Lars Davidson 
01 Jan 2018
Clearing vegetation near wind turbines affects power generation and rotor bending. Extended clearing can increase power output and reduce rotor loads compared to homogeneous forest conditions.
Open access•Journal Article•DOI
Local-scale impact of wind energy farms on rare, endemic, and threatened plant species
Mihaela Urziceanu, Paulina Anastasiu, Laurentiu Rozylowicz, Tatiana Eugenia Şesan 
19 May 2021-PeerJ
5 Citations
Vegetation clearing during wind farm construction significantly impacts rare, endemic, and threatened plant species diversity, with less than 40% colonizing disturbed areas, hindering recovery even after a decade.
Open access•Journal Article•DOI
Desmonte en Parques Eólicos en Ejido de Puerto Madryn, Chubut, Argentina
María Pía Di Nanno, Jonatan Hojman 
01 Aug 2020
1 Citations
Vegetation clearing during wind farm construction impacts habitat fragmentation and soil disturbance. Measures are taken to minimize these effects and manage topsoil for proper remediation of intervened areas.
Open access•Journal Article•DOI
Large eddy simulation: A study of clearings in forest and their effect on wind turbines
Johanna Matsfelt, Lars Davidson 
23 Mar 2021-Wind Energy
2 Citations
Clearings in forests near wind turbines can optimize power generation and reduce fatigue loads, impacting profitability by balancing electrical output and maintenance costs.

Related Questions

Terrestrial biodiversity impacts of the construction of wind farms?4 answersThe construction of wind farms has significant terrestrial biodiversity impacts. Studies show that wind farms can lead to lower bird densities, especially close to turbines, with forest species being particularly affected by habitat modifications. Additionally, wind farms can reduce the abundance and activity of predatory birds, leading to an increase in lizard density due to predator release and competition. Furthermore, the presence of wind turbines can result in increased human disturbance, lower wolf reproduction rates, and shifts in denning site locations for large carnivores like the Portuguese wolf. Detailed 'before-after-control-intervention' studies have demonstrated that wind energy development can significantly reduce the abundance of bird species within wind farms, indicating behavioral avoidance of turbines as a key factor. Overall, the construction of wind farms can have complex and far-reaching impacts on terrestrial biodiversity, emphasizing the need for careful siting and mitigation measures.
What are the effects of vegetation clearing during the construction phase of a WEF development?4 answersVegetation clearing during the construction phase of a Water, Energy, and Food (WEF) development can have significant environmental impacts. The removal of vegetation can lead to increased dust levels in the air, affecting air quality negatively. However, implementing land consolidation measures and pockets site preparation can help mitigate these impacts by improving rainfall infiltration, reducing runoff, sediment yield, and erosion rates. Additionally, the process of land clearing itself can generate dustfall and suspended particulate matter, impacting air quality further, which can be predicted using mathematical formulas based on soil types, wind velocity, moisture content, and land cover percentage. Therefore, it is crucial to consider the environmental consequences of vegetation clearing during WEF development to minimize adverse effects on air quality and ecosystem health.
How does vegetation cover affect flow patterns?4 answersVegetation cover has a significant impact on flow patterns. Increasing patch cover or density decreases runoff and sediment yields, while coarsening the vegetation pattern increases runoff coefficients and reduces time to runoff. Patch cover primarily controls hydrologic processes, while patch pattern exhibits its full potential for low and medium-low patch cover values. Vegetation roughness characteristics, such as height, coverage density, and stem stiffness, influence wind flow and turbulence conditions. Different vegetation arrangements and densities can intensify streamwise velocity, turbulence kinetic energy, and Reynolds shear stress. Vegetation can also change the velocity distribution in open channels, with the velocity in the vegetation zone being significantly smaller than in the free-flow zone. The velocity profiles in short and tall vegetation zones are also different. Vegetation cover density is related to sediment concentration and absolute soil detachment, with higher density providing better protection against soil erosion.
How can we prevent vegetation removal?10 answers
How do I stop vegetation growth?3 answers
How to prevent vegetation?7 answers

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