THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

Estimation of usable biomass

3.1. A generic model for estimating usable biomass.Not all biologically available

biomass can be used for energy production because of a series of restrictions. These

restrictionscan be in ecological (e.g., soil carbon maintenance), economical (e.g., higher

value uses), and other aspects. Here we propose a generic model for estimating the

amount of biomass that is eventually usable for energy production at a

specific location:

P ¼ B _ r _ m _ ð1 _ c _ e _ lÞ, (1)

Where:

B is the biologically available biomass, derived from the

annual NPP. For crops, this means the above-ground biomass

when the crops are ready for harvest. For forest, this refers to

the net annual change of the above-ground biomass. It is the

ultimate source of the biomass for energy production and

thereby is the most basic variable in the model. Remote

sensing can be used to estimate this value.

The ratio r is in the fraction of B that is not primary yield.

For crops, usually only the residues (e.g., straws and stems)

are used for energy production, resulting in a relatively low

value of r. For fast-growing grass/trees that are dedicated to

energy production, r can be equal or close to 1 [9,10].

GIS provide powerful tools for addressing geographical and environmental issues.
Consider the schematic diagram below. Imagine that the GIS allows us to arrange
information about a given region or city as a set of maps with each map displaying
information about one characteristic of the region. In the case below, a set of maps
that will be helpful for urban transportation planning have been gathered. Each of
these separate thematic maps is referred to as a layer, coverage, or level. And each
layer has been carefully overlaid on the others so that every location is precisely
matched to its corresponding locations on all the other maps. The bottom layer of
this diagram is the most important, for it represents the grid of a locational reference
system (such as latitude and longitude) to which all the maps have been precisely
registered.
Once these maps have been registered carefully within a common locational reference
system, information displayed on the different layers can be compared and analyzed
in combination. Transit routes can be compared to the location of shopping malls,
population density to centers of employment. In addition. single locations or areas can
be separated from surrounding locations, as in the diagram below, by simply cutting
all the layers of the desired location from the larger map. Whether for one location or
the entire region, GIS offers a means of searching for spatial patterns and processes.
Not all analyses will require using all of the map layers simultaneously. In some
cases, a researcher will use information selectively to consider relationships between
specific layers. Furthermore, information from two or more layers might be combined
and then transformed into a new layer for use in subsequent analyses. This process of
combining and transforming information from different layers is sometimes called
map "algebra" insofar as it involves adding and subtracting information. If, for
example, we wanted to consider the effects of widening a road, we could begin with
the road layer, widen a road to its new width to produce a new map, and overlay this
new map on layers representing land use.

The Appeal and Potential of GIS

The great appeal of GIS stems from their ability to integrate great quantities of
information about the environment and to provide a powerful repertoire of analytical
tools to explore this data. The example above displayed only a few map layers
pertaining to urban transportation planning. The layers included would be very
different if the application involved modeling the habitat of an endangered species or
the environmental consequences of leakage from a hazardous materials site.
 Imagine the potential of a system in which dozens or hundreds of maps layers are
arrayed to display information about transportation networks, hydrography,
population characteristics, economic activity, political jurisdictions, and other
characteristics of the natural and social environments. Such a system would be
valuable in a wide range of situations--for urban planning, environmental resource
management, hazards management, emergency planning, or transportation
forecasting, and so on. The ability to separate information in layers, and then combine
it with other layers of information is the reason why GIS hold such great potential as
research and decision-making tools.