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ForestSim: An Agent-Based Simulation for Bioenergy Sustainability Assessment

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Book cover Advances in Complex Societal, Environmental and Engineered Systems

Part of the book series: Nonlinear Systems and Complexity ((NSCH,volume 18))

Abstract

Global development must become more sustainable. To do so, society must adopt a sustainable energy alternative to fossil fuels (Dincer 2000). Second-generation bioenergy from woody biomass (trees and other woody plants) offers a promising alternative that can avoid both the inevitable finite supply problems and climate change impacts of conventional energy (Hoogwijk et al. 2003). However, the sustainability of second-generation bioenergy depends greatly on the availability of a reliable woody biomass supply (Becker et al. 2009). The provisioning of biomass feedstock requires significant land-use land-cover change in the form of forest harvesting activity that greatly impacts local forest ecology, the viability of bioenergy markets, and other socially valued forest uses. These overlapping and often competing interests make estimating the availability of biomass and assessing its sustainability impacts a highly complex task (Berndes et al. 2003). The current chapter provides a framework for using Agent-Based Modeling (ABM) to assess the sustainability of bioenergy production in a way that accounts for this inherent complexity.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Social Sciences Department, Environmental and Energy Policy Program, Michigan Technological University, Houghton, MI, USA

    Mark Rouleau

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  1. Mark Rouleau
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Correspondence to Mark Rouleau .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Ibn Zohr University, Agadir, Morocco

    Mohamed Nemiche

  2. ENSIAS College of Engineering, Mohamed V University of Rabat, Rabat, Morocco

    Mohammad Essaaidi

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Rouleau, M. (2017). ForestSim: An Agent-Based Simulation for Bioenergy Sustainability Assessment. In: Nemiche, M., Essaaidi, M. (eds) Advances in Complex Societal, Environmental and Engineered Systems. Nonlinear Systems and Complexity, vol 18. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-46164-9_4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-46164-9_4

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-46163-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-46164-9

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