Title:
Assessment of Shrub Biomass Availability and Environmental Impacts of its Mechanical Harvesting for Energy Purposes: a Methodological Approach in the Mediterranean
Author(s):
Gonzalez-Gonzalez, B.D., Sixto, H., Vázquez, A., Montes, F., Sánchez-González, M., Cañellas, I.
Document(s):
Paper
Poster
Abstract:
The sustainable management of shrub formations is a challenging aspect of forest management. Such management aims not only to generate biomass resources for multiple uses, creating employment in rural area, but also reduce the risk of fires in fire-prone areas. However, the current methodologies for estimating the potential of shrub biomass, either through direct or indirect approaches, have been developed without taking into consideration the legal, technical, economic and environmental restrictions often found in Mediterranean environments. Moreover, the mechanized harvesting of shrub biomass requires environmental impact assessments to be carried out to identify both the positive and negative impacts in the short-term, which is especially important in the Mediterranean given its specific climatic conditions. This study provides a new methodological approach which considers real scenarios and is based on a GIS for estimating shrub biomass availability in the Mediterranean. Furthermore, it also provides an appropriate methodology for monitoring the environmental impacts of shrub harvesting on biodiversity and the physical and chemical properties of the soil, as well as on erosion and fire risks. The results of this study show that realistic restrictions lead to only part of the overall biomass fraction being considered as available for harvesting. Our results also reveal that the environmental impacts of shrub biomass harvesting, which leads to changes in biodiversity, soil properties, erosion and fire risk, can be easily assessed through a monitoring approach. All of these approaches have been tested in specific, real cases and the results presented and discussed appropriately.
Keywords:
biomass, geographical information system (GIS), harvesting, environmental impact, shrubs
Topic:
Biomass Resources
Subtopic:
Biomass Potentials and Biomass Mobilisation
Event:
25th European Biomass Conference and Exhibition
Session:
1DV.1.2
Pages:
133 - 142
ISBN:
978-88-89407-17-2
Paper DOI:
10.5071/25thEUBCE2017-1DV.1.2
Price:
FREE
