Paper details

Title:

Global Assessment of Sustainable Land Availability for Bioenergy and Food Production

Author(s):

Riegel, F., Roth, A., Batteiger, V.

Document(s):

Abstract:

An increasing standard of living of a growing world population continuously raises the demand for agricultural commodities for food and feed, but also for bioenergy and other purposes. Robust and detailed knowledge of the potentially available agricultural land is key to estimate sustainable crop production potentials. To date, however, such knowledge is uncertain. Previous studies showed a wide variation, ranging from 1552 to 5309 million hectares (Mha), corresponding to 1.1 to 3.8 times the current global cropland area. This variation is mainly a consequence of differences in underlying assumptions and the data sources used. In the present study, agricultural land availability was estimated from local to global scale on the basis of recent geodata with an improved spatial resolution of up to 15 arcseconds (arcsec). Moreover, special emphasis was placed on excluding forest and other ecologically sensitive areas, in line with strict sustainability principles. Our results indicate that worldwide 27% (or 3729 Mha) of the total terrestrial area can be considered as potentially suitable and accessible for agricultural purposes. With the precise assessment presented here, we established a consistent data basis to accurately quantify sustainable agricultural crop production potentials.

Keywords:

bioenergy, land use, sustainability, production, food, agricultural land

Topic:

Biomass Resources

Subtopic:

Biomass potentials and biomass production models

Event:

27th European Biomass Conference and Exhibition

Session:

1AO.1.1

Pages:

14 - 22

ISBN:

978-88-89407-19-6

Paper DOI:

10.5071/27thEUBCE2019-1AO.1.1

Price:

FREE