Spatial heterogeneity of vegetation phenology caused by urbanization in China based on remote sensing

•320 Chinese cities with urban and non-urban vegetation phenology showed significant differences.•Urbanization causes spatial heterogeneity of vegetation phenology across 320 cities in China.•The start/end of growing season was significantly advanced/delayed, resulting in a 9.25 days lengthened growing season.•Different vegetation zones in China have different phenological differences across cities. Vegetation phenology changes caused by urbanization could lead to shifts in ecosystem services in urban areas and impact on human health. The characteristics of urbanization affect vegetation phenology need to be emphasized, especially in China with a complex natural environment and rapid urbanization background. In this study, we used remote sensing-based phenological data (MODIS MCD12Q2) to analyze the spatial heterogeneity of vegetation phenology caused by urbanization between urban and non-urban areas in 320 cities across China. We found a significant difference between vegetation phenology in urban and its corresponding non-urban area at national and the regional scale. For national scale, the start of the growing season (SOS) was significantly advanced by 2.53 days (P