Browsing by Author "Mead, Andrew"

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    A framework for reviewing the trade-offs between, renewable energy, food, feed and wood production at a local level
    (Pergamon, 2012-01-31T00:00:00Z) Burgess, Paul J.; Rivas Casado, Monica; Gavu, Jerry; Mead, Andrew; Cockerill, Tim; Lord, Richard; van der Horst, Dan; Howard, David C.
    High fuel prices and concerns about energy security and anthropogenic climate change are encouraging a transition towards a low carbon economy. Although energy policy is typically set at a national level, tools are needed for people to engage with energy policy at regional and local levels, and to guide decisions regarding land use, distributed generation and energy supply and demand. The aim of this paper is to develop a per-capita approach to renewable energy demand and supply within a landscape and to illustrate the key trade-offs between renewable energy, food, (animal) feed and wood production. The chosen case study area (16,000 ha) of Marston Vale, England is anticipated to have a population density midway between that for England and the UK. The daily per capita demand for energy for heat (31 kWh), transport (34 kWh) and electricity (15 kWh) when combined (80 kWh) was seven-fold higher than the combined demand for food (2 kWh), animal feed (6 kWh), and wood (4 kWh). Using described algorithms, the combined potential energy supply from domestic wind and photovoltaic panels, solar heating, ground-source heat, and municipal waste was limited (<10 kWh p−1d−1). Additional electricity could be generated from landfill gas and commercial wind turbines, but these have temporal implications. Using a geographical information system and the Yield-SAFE tree and crop yield model, the capacity to supply bioethanol, biodiesel, and biomass, food, feed and wood was calculated and illustrated for three land-use scenarios. These scenarios highlight the limits on meeting energy demands for transport (33%) and heat (53%), even if all of the arable and grassland area was planted to a high yielding crop like wheat. The described framework therefore highlights the major constraints faced in meeting current UK energy demands from land-based renewable energy and the stark choices faced by decision mak
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    Predicting the impacts of bioenergy production on farmland birds
    (Elsevier, 2014-01-21) Rivas Casado, Monica; Mead, Andrew; Burgess, Paul J.; Howard, David C.; Butler, Simon J.
    Meeting European renewable energy production targets is expected to cause significant changes in land use patterns. With an EU target of obtaining 20% of energy consumption from renewable sources by 2020, national and local policy makers need guidance on the impact of potential delivery strategies on ecosystem goods and services to ensure the targets are met in a sustainable manner. Within agroecosystems, models are available to explore consequences of such policy decisions for food, fuel and fibre production but few can describe the effect on biodiversity. This paper describes the integration and application of a farmland bird population model within a geographical information system (GIS) to explore the consequences of land use changes arising from different strategies to meet renewable energy production targets. Within a 16,000 ha arable dominated case study area in England, the population growth rates of 19 farmland bird species were predicted under baseline land cover, a scenario maximising wheat production for bioethanol, and a scenario focused on mix of bioenergy sources. Both scenarios delivered renewable energy production targets for the region (> 12 kWh per person per day) but, despite differences in resultant landscape composition, the response of the farmland bird community as a whole to each scenario was small and broadly similar. However, this similarity in overall response masked significant intra- and inter-specific variations across the study area and between scenarios suggesting contrasting mechanisms of impact and highlighting the need for context dependent, species-level assessment of land use change impacts. This framework provides one of the first systematic attempts to spatially model the effect of policy driven land use change on the population dynamics of a suite of farmland birds. The GIS framework also facilitates its integration with other ecosystem service models to explore wider synergies and trade offs arising from national or local policy interventions.