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Exploratory multi-criteria analysis in sustainability impact assessment of forest-wood chains: the example of a regional case study in Baden–Württemberg

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Abstract

Sustainability impact assessment (SIA) is a prospective, integrated assessment approach for potential impacts of policy actions. Multi-criteria analysis (MCA) can be used to facilitate a multi-indicator evaluation in this framework in order to foster rational and transparent decision-making processes for SIA. Based on the outputs of the EFORWOOD project, this paper presents an exploratory MCA to a regional forest-wood chain (FWC) in Baden–Württemberg. This assessment is based on a set of sustainability indicators at process level for a baseline year 2005, reference futures ‘A1’ and ‘B2’ following the definition of the IPCC and a bio-energy scenario implanted into the reference future ‘A1’. The indicator values were calculated by the process tool ToSIA. It is demonstrated how time steps for parts of the regional FWC (forest management, harvest and transport to the mill gate) can be evaluated, as well as the outcomes of different scenarios for a time period. For this purpose, a novel software tool, ToSIA-MCA, is used to calculate relative sustainability impact rating (SIR) based on a PROMETHEE II algorithm. Further, we performed uncertainty analysis to test the stability of ranking results in the absence of real preference information with regard to uncertainty in indicator data. By comparing different indicator weighting patterns, the sensitivity of SIR calculation was further tested. The exploratory MCA outcomes are critically evaluated against the background of assumptions, and data used in the regional case, and an outlook is given on the importance to gain stronger stakeholder involvement in real-life applications.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank all project partners who put efforts in process definition, data collection and calculation of indicators for the partial FWCs in the BW case used for this investigation, namely Torsten Bensemann, Volker Bölle, Philipp Duncker, Udo H. Sauter, Heinrich Spiecker, Philipp Weinert, Jürgen Zell and Katarzyna Zielewska at Freiburg University and FVA Baden–Württemberg.

Conflict of interest

This work was funded by the European Community’s Sixth Framework Programme within the Integrated Project ‘EFORWOOD’, contract no. 518128.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Forest and Soil Sciences, Institute of Silviculture, BOKU University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Sciences Vienna, Peter Jordan Strasse 82, 1190, Vienna, Austria

    Bernhard Wolfslehner, Werner Rammer & Manfred J. Lexer

  2. Forest Research Institute of Baden-Württemberg (FVA), Wonnhaldestr. 4, 79100, Freiburg, Germany

    Franka Brüchert

  3. Institute of Forest Utilisation and Work Science, Faculty of Forest and Environmental Sciences, Albert-Ludwigs- University Freiburg, Werthmannstraße 6, 79110, Freiburg, Germany

    Janine Fischbach & Gero Becker

  4. European Forest Institute (EFI), Torikatu 34, 80100, Joensuu, Finland

    Marcus Lindner

Authors
  1. Bernhard Wolfslehner
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  2. Franka Brüchert
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  3. Janine Fischbach
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  4. Werner Rammer
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  5. Gero Becker
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  6. Marcus Lindner
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  7. Manfred J. Lexer
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Bernhard Wolfslehner.

Additional information

Communicated by K. Rosen.

This article originates from the context of the EFORWOOD final conference, 23–24 September 2009, Uppsala, Sweden. EFORWOOD––Sustainability Impact Assessment of Forestry-wood Chains. The project was supported by the European Commission.

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Wolfslehner, B., Brüchert, F., Fischbach, J. et al. Exploratory multi-criteria analysis in sustainability impact assessment of forest-wood chains: the example of a regional case study in Baden–Württemberg. Eur J Forest Res 131, 47–56 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10342-011-0499-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10342-011-0499-z

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