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Exploring forests vulnerable to over-logging to supply woody biomass to power plants in Mie, Central Japan

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Abstract

The rapid increase of woody biomass power plants has given rise to concerns about the balance of supply and demand. The purpose of this study was to explore forests vulnerable to over-logging and show them visually in Mie Prefecture, central Japan when supplying woody biomass to power plants based on transportation distance and the time using a non-commercial road network. The destinations were the three biomass power plants and the origins were artificial forests divided by watersheds. Transportation distances and time between destinations and origins were estimated using the route-search function in Google Maps. Forests vulnerable to over-logging were explored based on two thresholds: a one-way distance of 50 km and a travel time of 2.5 h. Our results show that many of the artificial forests in Mie Prefecture might be subject to high harvesting competition. In all, 55.07% of the forest plantations in Mie Prefecture were within 50 km of two or three biomass power plants and 87.11% were within 2.5 h one-way. It might be necessary to supply woody biomass from southern Mie Prefecture. The stakeholder should share logging plans and monitor over-logging while planning for the efficient use of woody biomass in the southern part of Mie Prefecture.

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Acknowledgements

We extend our deepest appreciation to Prof. Ishikawa for offering continuing support and constant encouragement. We also thank our colleagues in the Forest Engineering Laboratory at Mie University, who provided invaluable comments and warm encouragement. This work was supported by JSPS KAKENHI Grant Number JP15K07479.

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  1. Graduated School of Bioresources, Mie University, 1577 Kurimamachiya-cyo, Tsu-shi, Mie, 514-8507, Japan

    Chisa Nakata & Akemi Itaya

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  1. Chisa Nakata
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Correspondence to Akemi Itaya.

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Nakata, C., Itaya, A. Exploring forests vulnerable to over-logging to supply woody biomass to power plants in Mie, Central Japan. Spat. Inf. Res. 29, 569–576 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41324-020-00365-3

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