before all I would do the climate study of your fourty stations.
Is it possible to discern any climate trends in your area between 2000 and 2014 and if so, are they different from climate trends in areas where the LULCC has not taken place or that had different LULCC?
I attach a file where you have to look at reference 25, BOX 1, and the literature of that reference, showing what the sense of such studies is, and I feel you can find some methodology there as well. At least the outcome of that study is that your work would make sense, because if you find a trend different from other areas, LULCC is the most likely cause!