Detecting utility-scale solar installations and associated land cover changes using spatiotemporal segmentation of Landsat imagery

As utility-scale solar development expands across temperate forest regions, concerns have emerged over its unintended environmental impacts, particularly land-use and land-cover change (LULCC) and associated impacts on carbon dynamics. This study develops and tests an object-based change detection framework that integrates Continuous Change Detection and Classification (CCDC) with Simple Non-Iterative Clustering (SNIC) to map utility-scale solar development and related forest disturbances in Massachusetts from 2005 to 2024. By combining temporal and spatial segmentation, this method maps the spatiotemporal footprint of utility-scale solar installations with associated deforestation and post-clearing dynamics. Our results show approximately 51% of utility-scale solar installations occurred on previously forested land, with an additional 64% of surrounding forest cleared relative to the directly deforested area. On average, each hectare of new solar development on forest land was associated with 1.66 hectares of deforestation between 2005 and 2024. Temporal trends from CCDC models quantify post-clearing vegetation dynamics and microclimatic effects. Exploration of the microclimatic effects of solar installations using time series method indicates Land Surface Temperature (LST) increases exceeding +7.2 °C in solar developments with deforestation and Albedo reductions after solar panel installations, suggesting substantial shifts in site-level biophysical conditions. Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) time series showed a positive slope following solar installation, indicating gradual vegetation regrowth. The results indicate that the newly developed CCDC-SNIC was successfully applied to Landsat time series for detecting utility-scale solar installations and their associated LULCC. This method can provide a foundation for integrating LULCC data with carbon modeling to quantify the net climate impact of utility-scale solar. • A spatiotemporal segmentation of Landsat time series for utility-scale solar • 51% of solar developments in Massachusetts were built on forested land • An additional 64% of surrounding forest was cleared for solar developments • Solar projects with deforestation increased local land surface temperature • NDVI trends revealed gradual vegetation regrowth after solar installation