IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jlands/v10y2021i2p102-d485279.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Pan-European Mapping of Underutilized Land for Bioenergy Production

Author

Listed:
  • Manuela Hirschmugl

    (Joanneum Research, Institute for Information and Communication Technologies, Steyrergasse 17, 8010 Graz, Austria
    Institute of Geography and Regional Science, University of Graz, 8010 Graz, Austria)

  • Carina Sobe

    (Joanneum Research, Institute for Information and Communication Technologies, Steyrergasse 17, 8010 Graz, Austria)

  • Cosette Khawaja

    (WIP Renewable Energies, Sylvensteinstr. 2, 81369 Munich, Germany)

  • Rainer Janssen

    (WIP Renewable Energies, Sylvensteinstr. 2, 81369 Munich, Germany)

  • Lorenzo Traverso

    (Economy, Engineering, Society and Business Department (DEIM), University of Tuscia, 01100 Viterbo, Italy)

Abstract

This study aims at identifying underutilized land potentially suitable for bioenergy production in Europe by means of remote sensing time series analysis. The background is the Revised Renewable Energy Directive (REDII) requesting that 32% of Europe’s energy production shall come from renewable energy sources until 2030. In order to avoid the food versus fuel debate, we only considered land that has not been used in the previous five years. Satellite remote sensing is the only technique that allows for the assessment of the usage of land for such a long time span at the pan-European scale with reasonable efforts. We used Landsat 8 (L8) data for the full five year time period 2015–2019 and included additional Sentinel-2 (S2) data for 2018 and 2019. The analysis was based on a stratified approach for biogeographical regions and countries using Google Earth Engine. To our knowledge, this is the first work that employs high resolution time series data for pan-European mapping of underutilized land. The average patch size of underutilized land was found to be between 23.2 ha and 49.6 ha, depending on the biogeographical region. The results show an overall accuracy of more than 85% with a confidence interval (CI) of 1.55% at the 95% confidence level (CL). The classification suggests that at total of 5.3 million ha of underutilized land in Europe is potentially available for agricultural bioenergy production.

Suggested Citation

  • Manuela Hirschmugl & Carina Sobe & Cosette Khawaja & Rainer Janssen & Lorenzo Traverso, 2021. "Pan-European Mapping of Underutilized Land for Bioenergy Production," Land, MDPI, vol. 10(2), pages 1-20, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jlands:v:10:y:2021:i:2:p:102-:d:485279
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/10/2/102/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/10/2/102/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Myroslava Lesiv & Anatoly Shvidenko & Dmitry Schepaschenko & Linda See & Steffen Fritz, 2019. "A spatial assessment of the forest carbon budget for Ukraine," Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change, Springer, vol. 24(6), pages 985-1006, August.
    2. Löw, Fabian & Prishchepov, Alexander V. & Waldner, François & Dubovyk, Olena & Akramkhanov, Akmal & Biradar, Chandrashekhar & Lamers, John P., 2018. "Mapping cropland abandonment in the Aral Sea Basin with MODIS time series," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 10(2), pages 1-24.
    3. Alcantara, Camilo & Kuemmerle, Tobias & Baumann, Matthias & Bragina, Eugenia V & Griffiths, Patrick & Hostert, Patrick & Knorn, Jan & Müller, Daniel & Prishchepov, Alexander V & Schierhorn, Florian & , 2013. "Mapping the extent of abandoned farmland in Central and Eastern Europe using MODIS time series satellite data," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 8(3), pages 1-9.
    4. Lesiv, Myroslava & Schepaschenko, Dmitry & Moltchanova, Elena & Bun, Rostyslav & Dürauer, Martina & Prishchepov, Alexander V. & Schierhorn, Florian & Estel, Stephan & Kuemmerle, Tobias & Alcántara, Ca, 2018. "Spatial distribution of arable and abandoned land across former Soviet Union countries," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 5, pages 1-12.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Pulighe, Giuseppe & Pirelli, Tiziana, 2023. "Assessing the sustainability of bioenergy pathways through a land-water-energy nexus approach," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 184(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Vera, Ivan & Wicke, Birka & Lamers, Patrick & Cowie, Annette & Repo, Anna & Heukels, Bas & Zumpf, Colleen & Styles, David & Parish, Esther & Cherubini, Francesco & Berndes, Göran & Jager, Henriette & , 2022. "Land use for bioenergy: Synergies and trade-offs between sustainable development goals," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 161(C).
    2. Wuepper, David & Borrelli, Pasquale & Mueller, Daniel & Finger, Robert, 2020. "Quantifying the soil erosion legacy of the Soviet Union," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 185(C).
    3. T. G. Nefedova & A. A. Medvedev, 2020. "Shrinkage of the Developed Space in Central Russia: Population Dynamics and Land Use in Rural Areas," Regional Research of Russia, Springer, vol. 10(4), pages 549-561, October.
    4. Chong Jiang & Wei Song, 2021. "Degree of Abandoned Cropland and Socioeconomic Impact Factors in China: Multi-Level Analysis Model Based on the Farmer and District/County Levels," Land, MDPI, vol. 11(1), pages 1-25, December.
    5. Han Li & Wei Song, 2021. "Cropland Abandonment and Influencing Factors in Chongqing, China," Land, MDPI, vol. 10(11), pages 1-21, November.
    6. Chao Dong & Gengxing Zhao & Yuanwei Qin & Hong Wan, 2019. "Area extraction and spatiotemporal characteristics of winter wheat–summer maize in Shandong Province using NDVI time series," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(12), pages 1-19, December.
    7. Teng, Xiangyu & Liu, Fan-peng & Chiu, Yung-ho, 2021. "The change in energy and carbon emissions efficiency after afforestation in China by applying a modified dynamic SBM model," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 216(C).
    8. Xu, Dingde & Deng, Xin & Huang, Kai & Liu, Yi & Yong, Zhuolin & Liu, Shaoquan, 2019. "Relationships between labor migration and cropland abandonment in rural China from the perspective of village types," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    9. Svanidze, Miranda & Götz, Linde Johanna, 2019. "Spatial market efficiency of grain markets in Russia and global food security: A comparison with the USA," IAMO Discussion Papers 187, Leibniz Institute of Agricultural Development in Transition Economies (IAMO).
    10. Schierhorn, Florian & Müller, Daniel & Prishchepov, Alexander V. & Faramarzi, Monireh & Balmann, Alfons, 2014. "The potential of Russia to increase its wheat production through cropland expansion and intensification," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 3(3-4), pages 133-141.
    11. Guandong Su & Hidenori Okahashi & Lin Chen, 2018. "Spatial Pattern of Farmland Abandonment in Japan: Identification and Determinants," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(10), pages 1-22, October.
    12. Yaqian He & Jieun Oh & Eungul Lee & Yaeone Kim, 2022. "Land Cover and Land Use Mapping of the East Asian Summer Monsoon Region from 1982 to 2015," Land, MDPI, vol. 11(3), pages 1-21, March.
    13. Małgorzata Woźniak & Anna Gałązka & Grzegorz Siebielec & Magdalena Frąc, 2022. "Can the Biological Activity of Abandoned Soils Be Changed by the Growth of Paulownia elongata × Paulownia fortunei ?—Preliminary Study on a Young Tree Plantation," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 12(2), pages 1-20, January.
    14. Subedi, Yuba Raj & Kristiansen, Paul & Cacho, Oscar, 2022. "Reutilising abandoned cropland in the Hill agroecological region of Nepal: Options and farmers’ preferences," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 117(C).
    15. Alexander V. Prishchepov & Florian Schierhorn & Fabian Löw, 2021. "Unraveling the Diversity of Trajectories and Drivers of Global Agricultural Land Abandonment," Land, MDPI, vol. 10(2), pages 1-8, January.
    16. Robert Pazúr & Juraj Lieskovský & Matthias Bürgi & Daniel Müller & Tibor Lieskovský & Zhen Zhang & Alexander V. Prishchepov, 2020. "Abandonment and Recultivation of Agricultural Lands in Slovakia—Patterns and Determinants from the Past to the Future," Land, MDPI, vol. 9(9), pages 1-22, September.
    17. Kanat Samarkhanov & Jilili Abuduwaili & Alim Samat & Gulnura Issanova, 2019. "The Spatial and Temporal Land Cover Patterns of the Qazaly Irrigation Zone in 2003–2018: The Case of Syrdarya River’s Lower Reaches, Kazakhstan," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(15), pages 1-20, July.
    18. Yi Yu & Tingbao Xu & Tao Wang, 2020. "Outmigration Drives Cropland Decline and Woodland Increase in Rural Regions of Southwest China," Land, MDPI, vol. 9(11), pages 1-23, November.
    19. A. V. Sheludkov, 2019. "Territorial Structure and Organization of Agriculture in Tyumen Oblast in 1973 and 2014: Comparative Analysis," Regional Research of Russia, Springer, vol. 9(3), pages 278-287, July.
    20. Tyner, W. & Zhao, X. & Taheripour, F., 2018. "A comparison between GTAP-BIO and GLOBIOM for estimating biofuels induced land use change emissions," 2018 Conference, July 28-August 2, 2018, Vancouver, British Columbia 275967, International Association of Agricultural Economists.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jlands:v:10:y:2021:i:2:p:102-:d:485279. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.