Geospatial Analysis Approaches for Assessing Biomass Potentials from Agricultural Landscapes

Abstract

This chapter presents an overview of the Geospatial Analysis Approaches for Assessing Biomass Potentials from Agricultural Landscapes. The chapter begins with a discussion about the sustainability challenges and opportunities for assessing the biomass resources potentials, tackling the main sustainability aspects linked to the use of agricultural biomass for energy, competition for land and other resources, the impact on land as well as the ways for addressing uncertainty risks and benefits for bioenergy. This information provides the basis for a detailed analysis of the geospatial methods used for assessing the bioenergy potentials in agricultural landscapes, especially for energy crops and agricultural residues. The section describes different approaches that employing different methodologies, from simple statistical to more complex spatially explicit methods and integrated modelling assessments. Depending on the focus and constraints adopted, the results can be expressed as Theoretical, Technical, Economic, Environmental and/or Sustainable potentials. Following the resource assessment section, the techniques used for estimating the energy potential of biomass resources are described. The common approach is to simulate a combination of facilities that consume and transform the biomass resources into energy products (biofuels, electricity, heat, etc.). In this regard, there are two main types of methodological approaches: suitability and optimality analyses. The suitability analysis, based on multi-criteria evaluation, encompasses a collection of procedures for solving problems based on multiple rules or criteria. The suitability analysis relies on heuristic algorithms to satisfy the location-allocation problems, which are used to identify optimal locations for bioenergy plants taking into consideration the availability of feedstock (supply), the transportation network, and the customer’s needs for energy (demand). In combination, these methods can provide geospatial information about the bioenergy potential in agricultural landscapes.KeywordsAgricultural landscapesBiomass potentialBioenergyGeographic information system (GIS)Spatial analysis