The role of forests as important source of ecosystem services has been underlined by European policies. Particularly the “Forest Action Plan” specifies the necessity of contributing to economic, social and environmental wellness and increasing the competitiveness of the European forest sector, also through the promotion of forest biomass use for energy purpose. Within this scenario and criticality associated with it, this research aims to develop a Decision Support System (DSS) for wood fuel supply chains planning. It consists of a multidisciplinary set of indicators to assess the sustainability of the entire forest-wood-energy system. For the evaluation of each specific indicator, the methodology uses quantitative cardinal scales, tool for multi-criteria analysis application where all the indicators are related to a conventional scale with the aim at allowing comparability between different criteria and reducing heterogeneous measures to comparable values. The case study used to test the methodology consists of a short wood-energy chain aimed at use of forest biomass energy for heat production in the Mountain Community Lario Intelvese. In order to develop the set of indicators all the phases of the supply chain have been analyzed in detail, from the harvest of forest biomass to energy conversion technologies, considering the possible environmental and techno-economic constraints that can affect the implementation of each stage of which the chain is composed. The DSS is designed as a tool to provide detailed information about environmental, social and economic sustainability of different solutions as a support to decision making about supply chain planning. Final aim of this planning should be to balance among several forest ecosystem services, such as resources and habitat conservation and economic valorization of forest biomass. For instance, one crucial aspect is the trade-off between the necessity to respect the carrying capacity of the forest ecosystem and to obtain the minimum amount of biomass necessary to feed the heating plant.
Castellani, V., Martire, S., Sala, S. (2011). Multidisciplinary sustainability evaluation of supply chains for forest resource use. In SETAC Europe XXI Annual Meeting Abstract Book.
Multidisciplinary sustainability evaluation of supply chains for forest resource use
CASTELLANI, VALENTINA;MARTIRE, SALVATORE;SALA, SERENELLA
2011
Abstract
The role of forests as important source of ecosystem services has been underlined by European policies. Particularly the “Forest Action Plan” specifies the necessity of contributing to economic, social and environmental wellness and increasing the competitiveness of the European forest sector, also through the promotion of forest biomass use for energy purpose. Within this scenario and criticality associated with it, this research aims to develop a Decision Support System (DSS) for wood fuel supply chains planning. It consists of a multidisciplinary set of indicators to assess the sustainability of the entire forest-wood-energy system. For the evaluation of each specific indicator, the methodology uses quantitative cardinal scales, tool for multi-criteria analysis application where all the indicators are related to a conventional scale with the aim at allowing comparability between different criteria and reducing heterogeneous measures to comparable values. The case study used to test the methodology consists of a short wood-energy chain aimed at use of forest biomass energy for heat production in the Mountain Community Lario Intelvese. In order to develop the set of indicators all the phases of the supply chain have been analyzed in detail, from the harvest of forest biomass to energy conversion technologies, considering the possible environmental and techno-economic constraints that can affect the implementation of each stage of which the chain is composed. The DSS is designed as a tool to provide detailed information about environmental, social and economic sustainability of different solutions as a support to decision making about supply chain planning. Final aim of this planning should be to balance among several forest ecosystem services, such as resources and habitat conservation and economic valorization of forest biomass. For instance, one crucial aspect is the trade-off between the necessity to respect the carrying capacity of the forest ecosystem and to obtain the minimum amount of biomass necessary to feed the heating plant.
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