• Energy Research

In het kader van de natte en droge infrastructuur, is duurzame gebiedsontwikkeling een complex samenspel tussen Rijkswaterstaat, provincies, gemeenten, waterschappen, marktpartijen en andere organisaties. ‘Deze partijen hebben verschillende belangen en werken vanuit hun eigen terrein aan een duurzame leefomgeving.’ Om dit proces te faciliteren is er binnen Rijkswaterstaat de tool Omgevingswijzer ontwikkeld, met als doel de verschillende belangen overzichtelijk in kaart te brengen en zo tot een duurzame oplossing te komen voor het gebied. Dit rapport is het resultaat van een eerste verkenning naar de toegevoegde waarde van data voor omgevingsmanagers om in gesprek te gaan/raken met belanghebbenden en zo een duurzame oplossing na te streven. Hierbij is gekeken in hoeverre de integratie van ruimtelijke datasets kan worden gebruikt als onderbouwing of objectivering voor effecten op de huidige duurzaamheidsthema’s en/of het bijdraagt bij het formuleren van duurzaamheidsambities.

The circular bioeconomy is the intersection of bioeconomy and circular economy. It strives towards a more sustainable and resource efficient world with a low carbon footprint. The circular bioeconomy increases the resource efficiency of processes and the use of recycled materials. In addition, fossil carbon is substituted through renewable carbon from biomass produced with agriculture, forestry and the marine environment. As the above definition illustrates, several interlinked sectors, represented by different scientific disciplines, are involved in studying the bioeconomy. These disciplines use different vocabularies, principles and concepts, which must be aligned to enable a coherent and consistent assessment of future scenarios and potential policies. To this end, around fifteen individuals representing the disciplines engaged in a process of collaborative modelling during workshops and bilateral meetings. This report describes i) the co-production of the conceptual model of the circular bioeconomy and ii) the transfer of the conceptual model into a modelling framework of existing models, and; iii) the application of one of the computer models within the context of the circular bio-economy, i.e. iClue, in relation to the linked models of the modelling framework

This study deals with approaches for a social-ecological friendly European bioeconomy based on biomass from industrial crops cultivated on marginal agricultural land. The selected crops to be investigated are: Biomass sorghum, camelina, cardoon, castor, crambe, Ethiopian mustard, giant reed, hemp, lupin, miscanthus, pennycress, poplar, reed canary grass, safflower, Siberian elm, switchgrass, tall wheatgrass, wild sugarcane, and willow. The research question focused on the overall crop growth suitability under low-input management. The study assessed: (i) How the growth suitability of industrial crops can be defined under the given natural constraints of European marginal agricultural lands; and (ii) which agricultural practices are required for marginal agricultural land low-input systems (MALLIS). For the growth-suitability analysis, available thresholds and growth requirements of the selected industrial crops were defined. The marginal agricultural land was categorized according to the agro-ecological zone (AEZ) concept in combination with the marginality constraints, so-called ‘marginal agro-ecological zones’ (M-AEZ). It was found that both large marginal agricultural areas and numerous agricultural practices are available for industrial crop cultivation on European marginal agricultural lands. These results help to further describe the suitability of industrial crops for the development of social-ecologically friendly MALLIS in Europe.

Agricultural expansion and intensification are main drivers of land-use change in Brazil. Soybean is the major crop under expansion in the area. Soybean production involves large amounts of water and fertiliser that act as sources of contamination with potentially negative impacts on adjacent water bodies. These impacts might be intensified by projected climate change in tropical areas. A Water Footprint Assessment (WFA) serves as a tool to assess environmental impacts of water and fertiliser use. The aim of this study was to understand potential impacts on environmental sustainability of agricultural intensification close to a protected forest area of the Amazon under climate change. We carried out a WFA to calculate the water footprint (WF) related to soybean production, Glycine max, to understand the sustainability of the WF in the Tapajós river basin, a region in the Brazilian Amazon with large expansion and intensification of soybean. Based on global datasets, environmental hotspots - potentially unsustainable WF areas - were identified and spatially plotted in both baseline scenario (2010) and projection into 2050 through the use of a land-use change scenario that includes climate change effects. Results show green and grey WF values in 2050 increased by 304% and 268%, respectively. More than one-third of the watersheds doubled their grey WF in 2050. Soybean production in 2010 lies within sustainability limits. However, current soybean expansion and intensification trends lead to large impacts in relation to water pollution and water use, affecting protected areas. Areas not impacted in terms of water pollution dropped by 20.6% in 2050 for the whole catchment, while unsustainability increased 8.1%. Management practices such as water consumption regulations to stimulate efficient water use, reduction of crop water use and evapotranspiration, and optimal fertiliser application control could be key factors in achieving sustainability within a river basin.

The growing bioeconomy will require a greater supply of biomass in the future for both bioenergy and bio-based products. Today, many bioenergy cropping systems (BCS) are suboptimal due to either social-ecological threats or technical limitations. In addition, the competition for land between bioenergy-crop cultivation, food-crop cultivation, and biodiversity conservation is expected to increase as a result of both continuous world population growth and expected severe climate change effects. This study investigates how BCS can become more social-ecologically sustainable in future. It brings together expert opinions from the fields of agronomy, economics, meteorology, and geography. Potential solutions to the following five main requirements for a more holistically sustainable supply of biomass are summarized: (i) bioenergy-crop cultivation should provide a beneficial social-ecological contribution, such as an increase in both biodiversity and landscape aesthetics, (ii) bioenergy crops should be cultivated on marginal agricultural land so as not to compete with food-crop production, (iii) BCS need to be resilient in the face of projected severe climate change effects, (iv) BCS should foster rural development and support the vast number of small-scale family farmers, managing about 80% of agricultural land and natural resources globally, and (v) bioenergy-crop cultivation must be planned and implemented systematically, using holistic approaches. Further research activities and policy incentives should not only consider the economic potential of bioenergy-crop cultivation, but also aspects of biodiversity, soil fertility, and climate change adaptation specific to site conditions and the given social context. This will help to adapt existing agricultural systems in a changing world and foster the development of a more social-ecologically sustainable bioeconomy.