Abstract: We employed the window search strategy to investigate the impact of afforestation on land surface temperature (LST) in the Three Gorges Reservoir Area from 2000 to 2021. The inverse distance weighting interpolation method was used to quantify the actual temperature effect of afforestation. The results showed the primary form of land use changes in the Three Gorges Reservoir Area was the conversion between woodland and cultivated land. The potential temperature effect of woodland resulted in a decrease in daytime LST reduction of (0.09±0.02) ℃, a nighttime reduction of (0.06±0.01) ℃, and an annual reduction of (0.07±0.01) ℃ on the interannual scale. The actual temperature effect of afforestation led to a daytime LST reduction of 0.05 ℃, a nighttime reduction of 0.01 ℃, and an annual average reduction of 0.02 ℃. Those results indicated that woodland in the Three Gorges Reservoir Area exhibited a cooling effect during day and night. Furthermore, the cooling effect of the potential temperature was greater than that of the actual temperature, a discrepancy primarily attributed to the differences in the assumptions and handling of afforestation intensity between potential temperature effect and the observed value.

Key words: Three Gorges Reservoir Area, afforestation, temperature effect, window search strategy