@misc{GerwinRepmannGalatsidasetal., author = {Gerwin, Werner and Repmann, Frank and Galatsidas, Spyridon and Vlachaki, Despoina and Gounaris, Nikos and Baumgarten, Wibke and Volkmann, Christiane and Keramitzis, Dimitrios and Kiourtsis, Fotios and Freese, Dirk}, title = {Assessment and quantification of marginal lands for biomass production in Europe using soil-quality indicators}, series = {SOIL}, volume = {4}, journal = {SOIL}, number = {4}, issn = {2199-398X}, doi = {10.5194/soil-4-267-2018}, pages = {267 -- 290}, abstract = {The cultivation of bioenergy plants in fertile, arable lands increasingly results in new land use conflicts with food production and cannot be considered as sustainable. Marginal lands have been frequently considered as potential alternatives for producing bioenergy from biomass. However, clear definitions and assessment methods for selecting marginal lands and for calculating potentials are still widely missing. The project "SEEMLA" aims at triggering the exploitation of currently underused marginal lands for biomass production for energy purposes. Study sites have been selected in different European countries: Germany, Greece, and Ukraine. The selected sites represent a wide variety of different types of marginal lands. Based on a soil assessment set given by the Muencheberg Soil Quality Rating (SQR) system potentially "marginal" sites have been investigated. The SQR system allows for clearly distinguishing between soils of higher and lower quality. Soils with SQR scores below 40 are regarded as "marginal". They can be classified into different groups with regard to the importance of soil hazard indicators as evaluated by the SQR approach. The calculated SQR scores correlate significantly with biomass yields of bioenergy plants. Further, the SQR method was adapted for use in a GIS study on marginal-land potentials in Europe. Thus, 46\% of the investigated European area could be classified as "marginal" with SQR scores below 40. From that area 22.6\% can be considered as potentially suitable for producing renewable resources after eliminating protected sites or other places not suitable for any kind of land use. Taking the ecological demands of selected bioenergy plants into account it is possible to give first preliminary recommendations for regional crop cultivation. It can be concluded that Europe offers a large potential for renewable resources from marginal sites. However, the implementation into practice is often impeded by missing or varying policies and regulations. A proper implementation needs clear regulations and also incentives for farmers at the European level.}, language = {en} } @misc{GalatsidasGounarisVlachakietal., author = {Galatsidas, Spyridon and Gounaris, Nikos and Vlachaki, Despoina and Dimitriadis, Elias and Kiourtsis, Fotios and Keramitzis, Dimitrios and Gerwin, Werner and Repmann, Frank and Rettenmaier, Nils and Reinhardt, Guido and Ivanina, Vadym and Hanzhenko, Olexander and Gnap, Iryna and Bogatov, Konstantin and Barbera, Federica and Mattioli, Diego and Volkmann, Christiane and Baumgarten, Wibke}, title = {Revealing Bioenergy Potentials: Mapping Marginal Lands in Europe - The SEEMLA Approach}, series = {Papers of the 26th European Biomass Conference Setting the Course for a biobased Economy, Conference held in Copenhagen, Denmark, 14-17 May 2018}, journal = {Papers of the 26th European Biomass Conference Setting the Course for a biobased Economy, Conference held in Copenhagen, Denmark, 14-17 May 2018}, editor = {Persson, M. and Scarlat, N. and Grassi, A. and Helm, P.}, publisher = {ETA-Florence}, address = {Florenz}, isbn = {978-88-89407-18-9}, doi = {10.5071/26thEUBCE2018-1AO.4.1}, pages = {31 -- 37}, abstract = {Marginal land (MagL) use for biomass production has received a lot of attention in the past decades. This alternative land use is free from conflicts with food crops, however it presents multiple challenges. The major issue to be resolved is the definition of marginal lands, which varies between disciplines and is often determined based on management goals. Moreover, concerns over the impacts of MagL use on environment, ecosystem services and sustainability have to be addressed. In response to these issues, the SEEMLA approach proposes an algorithm and tools to support MagLs identification and mapping, as well as the assessment of their potential for biomass production. The SEEMLA algorithm assesses land marginality using the Muencheberg Soil Quality Rating (M-SQR) developed by Mueller et al. (2007). The algorithm also incorporates criteria to eliminate MagLs that may not be exploitable for bioenergy due to ecological and environmental issues or regulatory and legal restrictions and constraints posed by national or EU policies applied. Finally, MagL suitable for bioenergy production is categorized based on climatic zone and crop suitability. Alternative exploitation scenarios are developed for each class of MagL. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) will determine the sustainability of each scenario, considering also the results of the pilot sites that have been established in Germany, Greece and Ukraine.}, language = {en} } @misc{GerwinRepmannGalatsidasetal., author = {Gerwin, Werner and Repmann, Frank and Galatsidas, Spyridon and Vlachaki, Despoina and Gounaris, Nikos and Baumgarten, Wibke and Volkmann, Christiane and Keramitzis, Dimitrios and Kiourtsis, Fotios and Freese, Dirk}, title = {Assessment and quantification of marginal lands for biomass production in Europe using soil quality indicators}, series = {Soil : an interactive open access journal of the European Geosciences Union}, journal = {Soil : an interactive open access journal of the European Geosciences Union}, issn = {2199-398X}, doi = {10.5194/soil-2018-14}, pages = {44}, abstract = {The cultivation of bioenergy plants at fertile, arable lands increasingly results in new land use conflicts with food production and cannot be considered as sustainable, therefore. Marginal lands have been frequently considered as potential alternative for producing bioenergy from biomass. However, clear definitions and assessment methods for selecting marginal lands and for calculating potentials are still widely missing. The project "SEEMLA" aims at triggering the exploitation of currently underused marginal lands for biomass production for energy purposes. Study sites have been selected in different European countries: Germany, Greece and Ukraine. The selected sites represent a wide variety of different types of marginal lands. Based on a soil assessment set given by the Muencheberg Soil Quality Rating (SQR) system potentially "marginal" sites have been investigated. The SQR system allows for clearly distinguishing between soils of higher and lower quality. Soils with SQR scores below 40 are regarded as "marginal". They can be classified into different groups with regard to the importance of soil hazard indicators as valuated by the SQR approach. The calculated SQR scores correlate significantly with biomass yields of bioenergy plants. Further, the SQR method was adapted for use in a GIS study on marginal land potentials in Europe. 46 \% of the investigated European area could be classified as "marginal" with SQR scores below 40. From that area 22.6 \% can be considered as potentially suitable for producing renewable resources after eliminating protected sites or other places not suitable for any kind of land use. Taking the ecological demands of selected bioenergy plants into account it is possible to give first preliminary recommendations for regional crop cultivation. It can be concluded, that Europe offers a large potential for renewable resources from marginal sites. However, the implementation into practice is often impeded by missing or varying policies and regulation. A proper implementation needs clear regulations and also incentives for farmers at European level.}, language = {en} } @misc{GerwinRepmannGalatsidasetal., author = {Gerwin, Werner and Repmann, Frank and Galatsidas, Spyridon and Gounaris, Nikos and Vlachaki, Despoina and Dimitriadis, Elias and Ivanina, Vadym and Volkmann, Christiane and Baumgarten, Wibke}, title = {The potential of marginal lands for bioenergy}, series = {BE Sustainable : the magazine of bioenergy and the bioeconomy}, journal = {BE Sustainable : the magazine of bioenergy and the bioeconomy}, number = {9}, pages = {10 -- 13}, abstract = {For a longtime, marginal lands have been considered as promising alternative for sustainable production of bioenergy. However, there are many issues to tackle before determining whether a marginal land is able to sustain production on in dustrial scale or not.}, language = {en} }