Promoting sustainable use of underutilized lands for bioenergy production through a web-based Platform for Europe

Duration: 2018 – 2021 ● Client: European Commission (H2020) ● WIP Role: Coordination, Stakeholder mobilisation and Involvement ●
https://bioplat.eu

The overall objective of the project is to promote the market uptake of sustainable bioenergy in Europe using marginal, underutilized, and contaminated lands for non-food biomass production through the provision of a web-based platform that serves as decision support tool. In order to achieve the overall goal, the work has been structured for achieving the following specific objectives:

• Creation of a database of maps on MUC lands in Europe generated based on high resolution data (Copernicus high resolution layers (HRLs), time series data from Sentinels and other satellites) and their attributes. All generated data will be included in GIS software with INSPIRE-compliant metadata files attached and transferred to a dedicated online platform.
• Development of a public user-friendly tool (STEN: Sustainability Tool for Europe and Neighbouring countries) that will assess the environmental, social and techno-economic sustainability aspects of scenarios and value chains with respect to specific economic and non-economic conditions for bioenergy production on MUC land.
• Development of a web-based platform that will include mainly, a webGIS tool which will be composed of the STEN tool and the GIS maps. The platform will be a core source of information and utility related to this topic for stakeholders as all the existing data will be downloadable for free.
• Mobilisation and involvement of stakeholders through working groups and workshops to mobilise them and encourage them to start their own projects.
• Communication with local and regional authorities through targeted presentations to help removing legal or political market uptake barriers.
• Provision of technical support to stakeholders on all aspects related to final stage of implementation from biomass production and processing, market access and management up to access to finance and project bankability.