Carbon costs and benefits of France’s biomass energy production targets

Background

Concern about climate change has motivated France to reduce its reliance on fossil fuel by setting targets for increased biomass-based renewable energy production. This study quantifies the carbon costs and benefits for the French forestry sector in meeting these targets. A forest growth and harvest simulator was developed for French forests using recent forest inventory data, and the wood-use chain was reconstructed from national wood product statistics. We then projected wood production, bioenergy production, and carbon balance for three realistic intensification scenarios and a business-as-usual scenario. These intensification scenarios targeted either overstocked, harvest-delayed or currently actively managed stands.

Results

All three intensification strategies produced 11.6–12.4 million tonnes of oil equivalent per year of wood-based energy by 2026, which corresponds to the target assigned to French wood-energy to meet the EU 2020 renewable energy target. Sustaining this level past 2026 will be challenging, let alone further increasing it. Although energy production targets can be reached, the management intensification required will degrade the near-term carbon balance of the forestry sector, compared to continuing present-day management. Even for the best-performing intensification strategy, i.e., reducing the harvest diameter of actively managed stands, the carbon benefits would only become apparent after 2040. The carbon balance of a strategy putting abandoned forests back into production would only break even by 2055; the carbon balance from increasing thinning in managed but untended stands would not break even within the studied time periods, i.e. 2015–2045 and 2046–2100. Owing to the temporal dynamics in the components of the carbon balance, i.e., the biomass stock in the forest, the carbon stock in wood products, and substitution benefits, the merit order of the examined strategies varies over time.

Conclusions

No single solution was found to improve the carbon balance of the forestry sector by 2040 in a way that also met energy targets. We therefore searched for the intensification scenario that produces energy at the lowest carbon cost. Reducing rotation time of actively managed stands is slightly more efficient than targeting harvest-delayed stands, but in both cases, each unit of energy produced has a carbon cost that only turns into a benefit between 2060 and 2080.

     

An open source GIS‐based Planning Support System: Application to the land use plan of La Troncal,Ecuador

Planning Support Systems (PSS) comprise a wide variety of geo‐technological tools related to GIS and spatial modeling aimed at addressing land planning processes. This article describes the OpenRules system, a PSS based on a previous system called RULES. Among OpenRules new features are its architecture, based exclusively on free and open source software, and its applicability to all land use types, including rural and urban uses. In addition, OpenRules incorporates an unlimited number of land evaluation factors and a new objective in land use spatial allocation. OpenRules has been programmed in Java and implemented as a module of the free GIS software gvSIG, with full integration between the GIS and the decision support tools. Decision support tools include multicriteria evaluation, multiobjective linear programming and heuristic techniques, which support three basic stages of land use planning processes, namely land suitability evaluation, land use area optimization and land use spatial allocation. The application of OpenRules to the region of La Troncal, Ecuador, demonstrates its capability to generate alternative and coherent solutions through a scientific and justified procedure at low cost in terms of time and resources.     

A new method for specular and diffuse pseudorange multipath error extraction using wavelet analysis

Multipath remains one of the major challenges in Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) positioning because it is considered the dominant source of ranging errors, which can be classified into specular and diffuse types. We present a new method using wavelets to extract the pseudorange multipath in the time domain and breaking it down into the two components. The main idea is an analysis-reconstruction approach based on application of both continuous wavelet transform (CWT) and discrete wavelet transform (DWT). The proposed procedure involves the use of L1 code-minus-carrier (CMC) observable where higher-frequency terms are isolated as residuals. CMC residuals are analyzed by applying the CWT, and we propose the scalogram as a technique for discerning time–frequency variations of the multipath signal. Unlike Fourier transform, the potential of the CWT scalogram for examining the non-stationary and multifrequency nature of the multipath is confirmed as it simultaneously allows fine detection and time localization of the most representative frequencies of the signal. This interpretation of the CWT scalogram is relevant when choosing the levels of reconstruction with DWT, allowing accurate time domain extraction of both the specular and diffuse multipath. The performance and robustness of the method and its boundary applicability are assessed. The experiment was carried out using a receiver of Campania GNSS Network. The results are given in which specular multipath error is achieved using DWT level 7 approximation component and diffuse multipath error is achieved using DWT level 6 denoised detail component.     

基于无人机影像的电力线巡检方法研究

随着无人机技术的飞速发展,无人机在远程遥控、续航时间、飞行品质上有了明显的突破,从而为其在电力线巡检作业中提供了良好的发展前景。本文在基于无人机影像巡检拍摄的电力线进行提取的时候,引入电力线一定处于两端塔杆所确定的铅垂面内的约束条件,从而根据约束条件稳定的实现了同名导线点的对应。在进行电力线实时测距时,采用铅垂线轨迹算法对交跨地物进行测距,快速判断电力线下方地物距离,并作出预警判断。     

城市地下管线综合管理信息系统设计探讨

本文以北京市地下管线基础信息普查信息系统开发项目为背景,分析了北京市地下管线综合管理信息系统建设的必要性。文章通过对北京市现有数据资源与相关系统进行整合,分析了城市日常管理对管线综合管理信息系统功能的需求。文章提出了地下管线综合管理信息系统应包含从最开始的管线数据采集,到管线成果数据质量检验,再到管线数据入库进行维护管理与最终管线成果数据共享应用等各阶段功能模块,并对各功能模块所包括的功能和使用对象进行了介绍。     

云南大山包自然保护区黑颈鹤觅食区适宜性评价研究

云南大山包自然保护区是黑颈鹤越冬的重要栖息地,以保护区GF-2影像及DEM为数据源,选取地表覆被、人为干扰、地形因子等作为评价指标,采用层次分析法确定评价指标权重.使用线性加权模型,在遥感、地理信息技术的支持下开展大山包自然保护区黑颈鹤觅食区适宜性评价研究,结果显示:1)保护区分布有黑颈鹤适宜觅食区10989.53 h...