Environmental assessment of forest bioenergy in multiple-use landscapes
The project aim to connect the existing models for calculating timber, pulp and bioenergy production, with new methods for biodiversity, carbon stock and recreation evaluation, to develop a new method for forests’ trade-offs and synergies analysis.
Project leader: Ulla Mörtberg (KTH)
Participants: Xi Pang (KTH), Hannes Böttcher (IIASA), Eva-Maria Nordström (IIASA and SLU), Ola Sallnäs (EC Joint Research Centre, JRC, and SLU)
Key words: forest, ecological profiles, bioenergy, biodiversity, ecosystem services.
Project period: 2012 – 2013
Funding: StandUp for Energy and the Swedish Research Council FORMAS, Sweden.
Project description
Forests provide essential ecosystem services that are of direct benefit to human beings such as timber for housing, air we breathing, area for recreation. They also provide bioenergy and help with lower global warming. Simultaneously, they are home and living resources for wild species. Multi-uses of forest are not always complement with each other, in many cases there are conflicts. Declining of biodiversity is an example of over biomass extraction.
The analysis was made in two management scenarios: business as usually (BAU) and continuous cover forestry (CCF), with a case study of a county in southern Sweden. Six forest ecosystem services were selected in the trade-off analysis: bioenergy, timber, pulp, biodiversity, carbon stock and recreation. LandSim was used for projecting forest growth in 100 years. Timber, pulp and bioenergy production was calculated by Heureka. Spatial modelling of ecological profiles was the approach to simulate structural changes of habitat. Models for carbon stock and recreation were made based on literature review and previous studies.
Aim
The project aim to connect the existing models which are used for calculating timber, pulp and bioenergy production, with new methods for biodiversity, carbon stock and recreation evaluation, to develop a new method for forests’ trade-offs and synergies analysis.
Award
For her paper and work on this project, Xi Pang was granted a 2013 YSSP Honorable Mention in the competition for the 2013 Peccei and Mikhalevich Awards.
Cooperation
This project is implemented in collaboration with the Environmental Management and Assessment research group, KTH, and SLU, within the FORMAS-funded co-operation project “Young Scientist Summer Program” in the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), Austria.
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