A sustainability framework for assessing studies about marginal lands for planting perennial energy crops

Jiang, Wei; Jacobson, Michael G.; Langholtz, Matthew H.

doi:10.1002/bbb.1948

A sustainability framework for assessing studies about marginal lands for planting perennial energy crops

Journal Article · Mon Nov 26 00:00:00 EST 2018 · Biofuels, Bioproducts & Biorefining

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1002/bbb.1948· OSTI ID:1490591

Jiang, Wei ^[1]; Jacobson, Michael G. ^[2]; ^[3]

Athenium Analytics, Washington, DC (United States)
Pennsylvania State Univ., University Park, PA (United States)
Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)

One of the issues with large-scale perennial energy crop production is increasing land use competition between ‘food and feed’ and ‘fuel’. A commonly suggested solution is to limit energy crop plantation to marginal lands. However, the concept and the methods used to assess marginal lands remain vague and inconsistent across bioenergy-related studies. In this work, we propose a sustainability-based framework to review and classify studies for marginal lands used for bioenergy crops. This framework innovatively puts the marginal land in a sustainability-based framework, showing the interaction of biophysical, socioeconomic, qualitative, and quantitative assessments. We found that current studies lack integration of biophysical and socioeconomic considerations in the marginal land analysis. They also lack qualitative approaches to assess marginal land. Lastly, we suggest that future work should emphasize integrating biophysical, socioeconomic, quantitative, and qualitative analysis for sustainable marginal land identification and use.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Research Organization:: Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE

Grant/Contract Number:: AC05-00OR22725

OSTI ID:: 1490591

Journal Information:: Biofuels, Bioproducts & Biorefining, Journal Name: Biofuels, Bioproducts & Biorefining Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 13; ISSN 1932-104X

Publisher:: WileyCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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A sustainability framework for assessing studies about marginal lands for planting perennial energy crops

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