A GIS decision support system for regional forest management to assess biomass availability for renewable energy production

Zambelli, Pietro; Lora, C Damián; Spinelli, Raffaele; Tattoni, Clara; Vitti, Alfonso; Zatelli, Paolo; Ciolli, Marco

doi:10.1016/j.envsoft.2012.05.016

Cited by 95 publications

(53 citation statements)

References 49 publications

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“…Especially, the identification of suitable places for wind and solar farms, pump storage hydroelectricity [44][45][46], as well as the mapping of renewable energy resources, including solar photovoltaic, wind, geothermal, biomass and hydro-electricity [11,[47][48][49][50][51], have lately been widely explored. These studies employ geospatial data on land use, elevation, buildings and infrastructure.…”

Section: Gis-based Approaches (Implicitly Geospatial Methods)mentioning

confidence: 99%

GIS-Based Planning and Modeling for Renewable Energy: Challenges and Future Research Avenues

Resch

Sagl

Törnros

et al. 2014

IJGI

124

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Abstract:In the face of the broad political call for an -energy turnaround‖, we are currently witnessing three essential trends with regard to energy infrastructure planning, energy generation and storage: from planned production towards fluctuating production on the basis of renewable energy sources, from centralized generation towards decentralized generation and from expensive energy carriers towards cost-free energy carriers. These changes necessitate considerable modifications of the energy infrastructure. Even though most of these modifications are inherently motivated by geospatial questions and challenges, the integration of energy system models and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) is still in its infancy. This paper analyzes the shortcomings of previous approaches in using GIS in renewable energy-related projects, extracts distinct challenges from these previous efforts and, finally, defines a set of core future research avenues for GIS-based energy infrastructure planning with a focus on the use of renewable energy. These future OPEN ACCESS ISPRS Int. J. Geo-Inf. 2014, 3 663 research avenues comprise the availability base data and their -geospatial awareness‖, the development of a generic and unified data model, the usage of volunteered geographic information (VGI) and crowdsourced data in analysis processes, the integration of 3D building models and 3D data analysis, the incorporation of network topologies into GIS, the harmonization of the heterogeneous views on aggregation issues in the fields of energy and GIS, fine-grained energy demand estimation from freely-available data sources, decentralized storage facility planning, the investigation of GIS-based public participation mechanisms, the transition from purely structural to operational planning, data privacy aspects and, finally, the development of a new dynamic power market design.Keywords: integration of GIS and energy system models; GIS and renewable energy; GIS-based energy infrastructure planning; future research challenges; fluctuating renewables; structural planning of local energy systems; operation optimization

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Section: Gis-based Approaches (Implicitly Geospatial Methods)mentioning

confidence: 99%

GIS-Based Planning and Modeling for Renewable Energy: Challenges and Future Research Avenues

Resch

Sagl

Törnros

et al. 2014

IJGI

124

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“…The mechanisation of extraction depends on the distance from the landing site, the slope and the terrain roughness as described in Zambelli et al (2012) and specified in the following case study. The integration of Biomasfor introduces additional forest chain organisation for thinning treatments and allows the parameter limits and the machinery typology to vary.…”

Section: Technical Bioenergy Quantificationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The first version of the Biomasfor model was developed by Zambelli et al (2012 (Zambelli et al 2010). In the first version, the methodology combined the opensource GRASS software, PostGIS and the PostgreSQL object-relational database management system.…”

Section: Model Background and Integration Of New Componentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Biomasfor: an open-source holistic model for the assessment of sustainable forest bioenergy

Sacchelli¹,

Zambelli²,

Zatelli³

et al. 2013

iForest

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© iForest -Biogeosciences and Forestry IntroductionThe assessment of the agroenergy chain is a fundamental issue in the field of renewable energies, in particular for the substitution of alternative energy sources for fossil fuels in rural areas (Fiorese & Guariso 2010). In this framework, the relevant topics are the evaluation of the bioenergy demand/supply ratio and the quantification of the impact of biomass on ecological and socio-economic parameters (Steubing et al. 2010). Furthermore, the evaluation of the agroenergy chain must consider policy directives and the presence of fundings and regulation that can cause market distortion (Sonneborn 2004).The analysis of the biomass sector in holistic terms is quite complex given the proposed objectives and scale of results (Cornelissen et al. 2012). Territorial and technological characteristics can be highly differentiated among study areas and could introduce variation into assessments of agroenergy (Freppaz et al. 2004, Vettorato et al. 2011. The characteristics of the European region, particularly those of the Italian territorial area, coupled with the present forest landscape dynamics (Tattoni et al. , 2011 have suggested how the exploitation of wood-energy sources can achieve a high level of importance for bioenergy production in these areas (e.g., for a widespread relationship linking the agroforestry environment with the local population -Ramachandra 2009, Notaro & Paletto 2011). The variability of national forest areas in terms of geomorphology, species composition, facilities and socio-economic issues requires the use of flexible tools and Decision Support Systems (DSSs) to quantify the resources and to facilitate the communication between researchers, local stakeholders and policy makers in woodenergy planning activities as applied to the forest sector. A Geographic Information Systems (GIS) approach appears to represent an appropriate tool for attaining this goal.Several studies have analysed GIS and spatial analysis instruments as tools for biomass chain evaluation at the European, national and local levels. Angelis-Dimakis et al. (2011) classify energy availability in terms of potential availability (according to the gross energy of the source), theoretical availability (the harvestable fraction) and exploitable availability (based on ecological and economic sustainability criteria). A state-of-the-art treatment of the topic of forest biomass availability at the European level was developed by Rettenmaier et al. (2008) who analysed the methodological approaches and input datasets used for bioenergy estimation. These authors classified the analytic process according to biomass typology (ecological, technical, economical, sustainable), biomass sources (e.g., residues, stem, stumps) and spatial-temporal variables (e.g., scale of analysis, time frame). Geomatic applications for biomass resource evaluation have been implemented by different authors (Chirici et al. 2007, Lasserre et al. 2011, Kotamaa et al. 2010). For example, Gallaun et al. (2010) have com...

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“…Currently, the woodchip chain of forest enterprises in the province of Trento is partially implemented (Baldo et al, 2011). Woodchip market trends and increasing bioenergy demand suggest that the forest wood energy chain could increase its production (Zambelli et al, 2012). In this framework, the total potential future availability of bioenergy from forests was computed using the open-source spatial analysis model Biomasfor (Sacchelli et al, 2013a).…”

Section: Potential Implementation Of Supply: Forest Residuesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Matching socio-economic and environmental efficiency of wood-residues energy chain: a partial equilibrium model for a case study in Alpine area

Sacchelli

Bernetti

Meo

et al. 2014

Journal of Cleaner Production

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Keywords:Wood energy chain Partial equilibrium model Multi-objective linear programming Geographic information system Sustainability assessment a b s t r a c tCombining the economics and the environmental and social aspects of bioenergy chain implementation is a difficult task, particularly for wood fuel production. Multiple aspects, such as financial analysis, technology development, natural resource exploitation and avoided environmental pollution, must be considered simultaneously. Thus, decision support models seem to be the proper tools for the overall definition of strategies in the wood energy sector.The objective of this study has been to develop a partial equilibrium model able to quantify the socioeconomic and environmental effects of policy, technology and best biomass allocation scenarios on the forest residue chain. The model, based on multi-objective linear programming and spatial analysis, considers the financial benefits/losses and the potential trends of three compartments: sawmills, forest enterprises and energy plants. In addition, the model computes avoided emissions for bioheat and bioelectricity production and introduces an impact indicator for the road transport of biomass. Model outputs are defined using a multi criteria approach. The main results stress the importance of both environmental parameters and the implementation of organic Rankine cycle technology for the optimization of the entire bioenergy chain. The model was tested in an Italian Alpine region (province of Trento).

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A GIS decision support system for regional forest management to assess biomass availability for renewable energy production

Cited by 95 publications

References 49 publications

GIS-Based Planning and Modeling for Renewable Energy: Challenges and Future Research Avenues

GIS-Based Planning and Modeling for Renewable Energy: Challenges and Future Research Avenues

Biomasfor: an open-source holistic model for the assessment of sustainable forest bioenergy

Matching socio-economic and environmental efficiency of wood-residues energy chain: a partial equilibrium model for a case study in Alpine area

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