definitions, potential use for biomass production and its ... · Indonesia & Malaysia Past/current...

Saori Miyake, Damian Bargiel

Technische Universität Darmstadt

25 April, 2017

The EGU General Assembly 2017

Session SSS2.10: Soils of Marginal Lands, Vienna

‘Underutilised’ agricultural land: its

definitions, potential use for

biomass production and its

environmental implications

25.04.2017 l Technische Universität Darmstadt l Saori Miyake

Presentation outline

Part I: Background

Part II: “Underutilised agricultural land” for future

bioenergy crop production: Burnett River

catchment, Australia

Part III: “Abandoned agricultural land” for future

biomass production: Central and Eastern

Europe (CEE)


Background Part I: Background

Photo source: The Washington Post


Growing bioeconomy and LUC effects

A growing bioeconomy and demand for biomass products: environmental

and social concerns e.g. food security, land use change (LUC) effects

Figure 1: Land use change pathways in four

geographical regions. (Miyake et al. 2012)

Brazil

Cattle pasture

Forest

Savanna (Cerrado)

Soybean

Sugarcane

Past/current land-use changes

Indirect deforestation

Cropland (rubber

plantations)

Forest

Oil palm

Indonesia & Malaysia Past/current Land-use changes

USA

Cropland (soybean)

Corn

Cropland (corn)

Forest

Grassland Soybean

Lignocellulosic crops

Past/current land-use changes

Projected land-use changes

CRP land (set-aside)

Corn

Surplus cropland

Cropland (break crops)

Surplus pasture Arable energy crops

Lignocellulosic crops

Projected land-use changes

Set-aside (UK)

Rapeseed

EU


“Underutilised agricultural land ”

• Since late 2000s, use of agricultural lands not in production, or not

suitable for food production was suggested for future biomass

production as a way of overcoming environmental and social

challenges (e.g. Hill et al. 2006; Campbell et al. 2008; Fargione et al. 2008; Field et

al. 2008; Ramage et al. 2009)

various types/terms: marginal, underutilised, idle, unused, free, surplus,

abandoned, set-aside, degraded, fallow lands…etc. (e.g. Dauber et al., 2012)

association with non-food ‘marginal crops’ (Shortall, 2013)

• No clear or single definition - significantly vary by country and local

conditions.

• No studies had investigated into the environmental consequences.


Part II: “Underutilised agricultural

land” for future bioenergy crop

production: Burnett River

catchment, Australia

Photo: South Barnett, Australia

Research project: “Environmental consequences of land

use changes for bioenergy crop production at a regional

scale” (2009-14)


Research aim

• To evaluate the

environmental sustainability

of bioenergy crop

production on ‘underutilised

agricultural land’ to

determine whether the use

of such lands results in

improved environmental

outcomes than current land

uses.

Research project: “Environmental consequences of land use

changes for bioenergy crop production at a regional scale”

Marginal/ Low

productivity land

Degraded land Waste land

Fallow land

Abandoned agricultural

land

Underutilised agricultural land

Reserved land

Figure 3: Definition of ‘underutilised agricultural land’ (adapted and modified from Wiegmann et al. 2008; Miyake et al., 2015)


Research procedure & methods

1. Developed a spatially-oriented evaluation framework - to

quantify 8 environmental indicators (water, soil &

biodiversity).

2. Applied to 6 land use

change (LUC)

scenarios in a study

region, sub-tropical

Australia.

3. Results of each

scenario compared

with a baseline

scenario (2005/06).

Figure 4: An evaluation framework. (Miyake et al., 2015)


Case study: “Underutilised agricultural

land” in subtropical Australia - 1

• Sub-tropical climate

• Beef grazing - 75% of total area

• Due to higher rainfall, settlements and croplands (e.g.

sugarcane) are constrained to

coastal areas.

• “Marginal” or “low

productivity” agricultural land:

poor soil (e.g. sandy soil,

rockiness, acidity), slope (>5%),

limited depth of soil. Linked to

the State government’s land

capability map. Figure 5: The Burnett River catchment (2005/06 land use)

Burnett River catchment, Qld, Australia (33,257 km2)

Land use

classification

Australia


• “Marginal land” in Australia: located inland

with arid/semi-arid regions. Commonly used

for grazing (55% of land).

• Since 1980s, “abandoned dryland cropping”

on ‘marginal’ land converted into beef cattle

grazing.

Dryland cropping requires intensive labour

and investment, decreased economic

profitability.

Beef cattle grazing doesn’t require hard

labour and became much profitable in

recent years. One of the greatest

environmental challenges in Aus. (e.g.

land clearing, GHG).

Photos: South Barnette, Australia

Case study: “Underutilised agricultural

land” in subtropical Australia - 2


LUC pathways:

• Pathway 1

• Pathway 2

• Pathway 3

Scenarios

Scenario development: LUC

pathways

Management intensity

‘Underutilised’ grazing

open areas

Pongamia

eucalypts

P1

E1 L o w

Hi g h

L o w

Hi g h

‘Underutilised’ grazing

forested areas

Pongamia

eucalypts

P2

E2

L o w

Hi g h

L o w

Hi g h

All ‘underutilised

agricultural lands’

Pongamia

eucalypts

P3

E3

L o w

Hi g h

L o w

Hi g h

Bioenergy crops

25.04.2017 l Technische Universität Darmstadt l Saori Miyake Figure 6: land use change scenarios for Pongamia

LUC scenarios: Pongamia


LUC scenarios: Eucalypts

Figure 7: Land use change scenarios for eucalypts

E1 E2 E3


-60%

-40%

-20%

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

120%TSS

TP

TN

Runoff volumeCA (native vegetation)

LPI (native vegetation)

Actual habitat amount

Baseline P1 (high intensity)

P2 (high intensity) P3 (high intensity)

-60%

-40%

-20%

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

120%TSS

TP

TN




Baseline P1 (low intensity)

P2 (low intensity) P3 (low intensity)

Results: Pongamia scenarios

Low management intensity High management intensity

Figure 8: Overall environmental consequences of Pongamia land use change scenarios in the Burnett River catchment, Australia.


-60%

-40%

-20%

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

120%TSS

TP

TN




Baseline E1 (low intensity)

E2 (low intensity) E3 (low intensity)

-60%

-40%

-20%

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

120%TSS

TP

TN




Baseline E1 (high intensity)

E2 (high intensity) E3 (high intensity)

Low management intensity High management intensity

Results: eucalypts scenarios

Figure 9: Overall environmental consequences of eucalypt land use change scenarios in the Burnett River catchment, Australia.


Key findings

• In sub-tropical Australia, only bioenergy scenario that benefited regional scale

environmental qualities was:

conversion of ‘underutilised’ grazing open areas (P1 & E1)

low management intensity.

• A policy direction of simply encouraging ‘underutilised agricultural land’ will not

necessarily result in improved environmental outcomes. Future policy should

provide more detailed prescriptions.

• Successful outcomes require careful planning & site management strategies.

• Bioenergy plantations do not alter catchment hydrology and improve water quality

(only if the management intensity is low) as replacing woody vegetation cover.

Management intensity is a crucial factor for better water and soil outcomes.

• Some species benefit from bioenergy crops in the fragmented landscape, but

bioenergy crop plantations cannot provide the same level of ecological functions

as native vegetation. Thus not a solution for threatened species in Australia.


Background Part III: “Abandoned agricultural

land” for future biomass

production: Central and Eastern

Europe (CEE)

Photo: The County of Ostrołęka, Poland


• Agricultural land abandonment is a global trend (Plienlinger et al 2014).

• Increased “abandoned agricultural land” across Europe since 1950s

due to:

increasing yields on productive lands

conservation policies at national and EU levels

rising importation of agricultural products

declining viability of agriculture in marginal regions (Terres et al.,

2015).

• Agricultural land abandonment in Europe exceeded 30,000 ha/year in

2000-06.

“Abandoned agricultural land”


Definitions: “Abandoned agricultural

land” in Europe

“Abandoned agricultural land” (Pointereau et al., 2008)

• Previously used for agriculture, but abandoned for physical, environmental and

socio-economic reasons.

• No single definition of the term, with different interpretations between each legal

or scientific text.

Definition

Administrative Farmland is abandoned if left unmanaged for more than 5 years.

Land which has not been used for agricultural production for 2 years.

Economic The land is considered as abandoned land when it is no longer used as an

economic resource.

Social Land abandoned following social and structural changes. Perception by other

social categories. Generally people do not make a difference between fellow

land and non-utilised farmland.

Landscape

ecological

Based on the description of the vegetation cover: percentage of shrubs,

bushes and trees.

Agronomic Land where farming has ceased and land which has been under-exploited.


• Land abandonment in Central

and Eastern Europe (CEE) is

associated with the collapse of

the Eastern Bloc in 1989.

• Extent of land

abandonment: estimates

vary largely e.g. 52.5 Mha in

2005 (Alcantara, 2013).

• Key drivers: economic and

environmental reasons, but

also political, institutional

and socio-economic

reasons

Abandoned agricultural land in CEE - 1

Collapse of the Eastern Bloc

Land reform Introduction of market economy

• Distribution &

restitution process

• Migration from rural to

urban areas

Uncertainty of legal

status of land ownership

Abolition of

state

subsidiaries

Price

liberalization

of agricultural

inputs

Decline of the agricultural sector

Economic unprofitability due to

marginal location, soil and low

productivity

Agricultural land abandonment

• Depopulation

• Loss of interest in

agriculture

Figure 10: Key drivers for agricultural land abandonment in Ukraine, Romania, Poland & Latvia

(Miyake and Wowra, under review)


• Strong interests in the use of these lands

for future food, feed and energy crop

production.

• Re-cultivation occurred after 2000 in high-

yielding lands (e.g. ‘Chernozem’ in Ukraine) (Smaliychuk et al, 2016)

• No study evaluated the environmental and

socio-economic effects of using these lands

for future biomass production.

Abandoned agricultural land in CEE - 2

Photos: The County of Ostrołęka, Poland

Ongoing project: ‘Environmental and

socio-economic implications of the use

of abandoned agricultural land for

future biomass production in CEE’

(October 2015 - )


Project goal and scope

Research aim: to evaluate socio-economic & environmental implications

of scenarios with biomass crops on “abandoned agricultural lands”.

Objectives:

1. To generate a land-cover map and a map indicating “natural

succession” using remote sensing imagery;

2. To develop biomass scenarios;

3. To evaluate the scenarios.

Research scope:

• biodiversity;

• carbon (soil, biomass);

• socio-economic changes

Trade

off?

Increased

socio-

economic

opportunities?

Environ-

mental

decline?

Any scenarios that can meet two goals at

the same time??

Introduction of biomass crop

production on abandoned lands


Study area: County of Ostrołęka, Poland

• Total area: 2,100km²

• Population: 390,000 (2015)

• Key industry (1990s- ): milk

production, largest cattle density in

Poland

• Poor soil quality: 81% (cropland), 58%

(grassland) classed into unproductive

soils.

• Strategic intervention area: high youth

unemployment rate (22% in 2014), low

income (76% of provincial average)

• Extensive agriculture and

heterogeneous agricultural

landscape: low agrochemical inputs,

high farmland biodiversity

Cropland

Grassland

Figure 12: Agricultural soil quality & Protected

areas in County of Ostrołęka (Source: IUNG, EC)


Land-cover mapping using remote

sensing (objectives and method) - 1

Objectives:

1. To create high resolution land-cover

data for the evaluation.

2. To test to map areas with ‘natural

succession’ due to land

abandonment, which can be used

for biomass production.

Source: IUNG

Figure 13: Landscape mosaic: The County of Ostrołęka

Visual interpretation of Google Earth

Ground Truth (April 2016)

Acquisition of Sentinel 2A images

Classification: Maximum Likelihood Classifier

• Unsupervised classification

• Definition of land cover classes

• Supervised classification

Step1: Land-cover Base Map

Step 2: Land-cover map with ‘abandoned

agricultural land’

Post-processing e.g. forest, road, settlements, water

Co-occurrence analysis: Haralick

texture features (GLCM)

Co-occurrence maps

Figure 14: Procedure for land-cover mapping


Land-cover mapping using remote

sensing (method) - 2

Method 1 (classification):

Visual interpretation of

natural successions: Google

Earth

Ground truth (5-7 April,

2016): 88 plots (all classes)

Sentnel 2A Satellite Images

(10m x 10m):

Spectral bands: Band2 (Blue),

3 (Green), 4 (Red), 8 (NIR)

5 Images: 24 March, 9 June,

28 August, 7 September and

17 October, 2016

Classification: Maximum

Likelihood Classifier

Mixed up areas with

trees and extensive

grassland = Higher

probability of being

abandoned land

Figure 15: An example of classification results, County of Ostrołęka, Poland

Road

Legend

Example 1


Figure 16 An example of co-occurance analysis results, County of Ostrołęka, Poland

Mapping abandoned agricultural land

(method and preliminary result) - 1

Methods (co-occurrence analysis)

to identify abandoned agricultural

lands:

Sliding Window of size 3 x 3, 5 x 5

and 7 x 7. Only two land cover

classes (i.e. trees/shrubs/trees and

extensive grassland) considered

Different statistics of Haralick

features tested. Best results

delivered by ‘entropy’.

Next steps: setting of a threshold for

Co-occurrence, applying Majority

Filter on co-occurrence maps,

validation of co-occurrence maps

based on field surveys


Mapping abandoned agricultural land

(examples) - 2

Example 2

Example 3

Orthophotograph Land cover classification Co-occurance analysis Ground truth

Figure 17: Examples of results of land-cover classification and co-occurance analysis, County of Ostrołęka, Poland


Land management strategies for

abandoned agricultural land

Abandoned

agricultural

land

Feasibility of

restoration of

agriculture in

the region

NO

YES

Proximity/connectivity to

the protected areas,

forests and HNV farmlands

Local conservation policy

Potential for new

agricultural-based industry

Infrastructure (e.g. road)

Socio-economic trends

Soil productivity

Topography Climate

Land use

“Re-wilding”

Restoration of

traditional

agriculture (e.g. semi-natural

grassland, HNV)

Re-cultivation

(food crops)

Re-cultivation

(biomass crops)

Combined approach

Local factors to consider Land management directions

Marginal

Productive

Introduction of biomass

crops: Requires

considerations for

different production

intensity & system for

biomass production.

Figure 18: Land management options for abandoned agricultural land in Europe.


Future works: possible biomass

production scenarios and evaluations

Scenario 2

Intensive grass

production

Biodiversity ↓ Carbon ?

Economic opportunity ↑↑

Biodiversity ↓↓↓↓

Carbon emission ↑↑↑↑

Scenario 3

Intensive SRC

production

Biodiversity ↓ Carbon ?

Economic opportunity ↑↑

Scenario 4

SRC integrated

with extensive

grassland (silvo-

pastoral agroforestry)

Biodiversity ↑↑ Carbon ↓

Economic opportunity ↑

Scenario 1 (baseline)

No change Expected effects

Biodiversity → Carbon ↓

Economic opportunity ↓

Current land use

‘underutilised

agricultural land’ with

natural succession

Figure 19: Possible scenarios

Vegetation

clearing


Conclusion

• No clear definition of the terms ‘underutilized agricultural lands’, as

significantly vary by country and local conditions.

• The environmental implications of biomass production on these land are

highly controversial. They are significantly different depending on local

conditions.

• Thus we need further evaluations – more trial sites in various locations to

obtain field data.

• Highly interdisciplinary research area - research cooperation and

collaborations across countries and disciplines are essential to provide

future policy direction.

• Future biomass production scenarios: low-impact crops and production

system in consideration of climate, land use, local biophysical conditions

and relevant policies (e.g. conservation) within a regional/ landscape

planning framework.


Acknowledgement

Australia

• Australian Postgraduate Award (APA)

• Ann Peterson, Carl Smith, Clive McAlpine, Marguerite Renouf (University of Queensland)

• David Waters and David Burton (Queensland Department of Natural Resources and Mines [DNRM])

• Queensland Department of Science, Information Technology, Innovation and the Arts (DSITIA)

• Peter Gresshoff and Paul Scott (ARC Centre of Excellence for Integrative Legume Research, The University

of Queensland), David Lee (Forest Industries Research Centre, University of Sunshine Coast)

• Ian Crosthwaite (BGA AgriServices) and Damien O’Sullivan (former Queensland Economic Development

and Innovation [DEEDI])

Europe

• EGU Early Career Scientist's Travel Support

• The German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD)

• Liselotte Schebek, Jan Mizgajski (Technische Universität Darmstadt, FG Stoffstrommanagement und

Ressourcenwirtschaft)

• Anna Tamm, Pouya Hedayati (TU Darmstadt, Institut für Geodäsie)

• Stanisław Kubeł, Aldona Kuciej (District Office in Ostrołęka, Poland)

• Rafał Pudełko (Institute of Soil Science and Plant Cultivation, Poland)


References

• Alcantara, C, et al. 2013, ‘Mapping the extent of abandoned farmland in Central and Eastern Europe using MODIS time series

satellite data’, Environmental Research Letters 8:1-9.

• Dauber et al. 2012, “Bioenergy from “surplus land”, environmental and socio-economic implications”, BioRisk7: 5-50.

• IEA 2011, Technology roadmap: Biofuels for transport, International Energy Agency, Paris.

• Miyake, S. et al. 2012, ‘Land-use and environmental pressures resulting from current and future bioenergy crop expansion: A

review’, Journal of Rural Studies 28: 650-8.

• Miyake, S, 2013, Environmental Consequences of Land use Changes for Bioenergy Crop Production at a Regional Scale (PhD

thesis), School of Geography, Planning and Environmental Management, The University of Queensland.

• Miyake, S et al. 2015, ‘Environmental implications of using ‘underutilised agricultural land’ for future bioenergy crop production’,

Agricultural Systems 139: 180-195.

• Miyake, S. et al. 2016 ‘Biodiversity and Socio-economic implications of the use of abandoned agricultural land for future biomass

production in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE)’, Conference proceeding of 24th European Biomass Conference and Exhibition

(EUBCE), pp. 1422-1430.

• Plienlinger, T. et al 2014, ‘The impact of land abandonment on species richness and abundance in the Mediterranean Basin: A

Meta-Analysis’, PLoS ONE 9.

• Pointereau, P. et al. 2008, Analysis of farmland abandonment and the extent and location of agricultural areas that are actually

abandoned or are in risk to be abandoned, European Commission, Joint Research Centre, Institute for Environment and

Sustainability.

• Shortall, OK 2013, ‘”Marginal land” for energy crops: Exploring definitions and embedded assumptions’, Energy Policy: 62: 19-27.

• Statistical Yearbook 2015, Masovian Voivodeship/ Mazovia Province.

• Terres, J.M. et al. 2015, ‘Farmland abandonment in Europe: Identification of drivers and indicators, and development of a composite

indicator of risk’, Land Use Policy 49: 20-34.

• Wiegmann, K. et al. 2008 “Degraded land and sustainable bioenergy feedstock production – Issue paper”, the Joint international

workshop on high nature value criteria and potential for sustainable use of degraded lands, Paris.


Saori Miyake

Institute IWAR

Technische Universität Darmstadt

E-mail: [email protected]

Tel: +49 6151 16-20732

Thank you! vielen Dank!

どうもありがとうございました。

mailto:[email protected]



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