Land Allocation for Biomass Crops: Challenges and Opportunities with Changing Land Use

This edited volume establishes a forum for international experts to explore cutting-edge questions associated with the land use and biomass production. Topics include ‘do we have enough land, either primary or marginal, to accommodate future production of biomass?’, ‘how are farming decisions made in response to biomass incentives?’, ‘is the current bio-mass production socially, economically and environmentally sustainable?’, and ‘what are the main constraints currently limiting biofuel deployment?’

The expansion of biomass production is often at the cost of reduced land availability for food production and losses of areas with ecological functions such as forests and wetlands. This process often involves complex interplay of physical dynamics and human systems that are driven by numerous geographic and socio-economic factors at different scales. Thus, the state-of-the-art research on the land use issues surrounding the biomass production and its environmental impacts is important for informed land management decision making. This book will be of great use to researchers in land use management and biomass-based renewable energy, as well as practitioners.

Prof. Ruopu Li is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Geography and Environmental Resources at Southern Illinois University-Carbondale. His research interests include biomass-related land use modeling, water resources modeling and management, and spatial data analytics. His recent research focuses on natural resources constraints on biomass cultivation and nonpoint source pollution associated with the crop production.

Prof. Andrea Monti is full Professor in crop science at the University of Bologna. He is the head of the Research Group of Industrial Crops in the Department of Agricultural and Food Sciences. His current research activity mainly focuses on lignocellulosic and oil crops. During the last 10 years he took part in more than 15 international projects on non-food crops, and presently, he coordinates an EU-Brazil cooperation project on advanced biofuels (BECOOL).