title: Developing and validating a practical decision support tool (DST) for biomass selection on marginal land.
abstract: Marginal, often contaminated, sites exist in large areas across the world as a result of historic activities such as industry, transportation and mineral extraction. Remediation, or other improvements, of these sites is typically only considered for sites with high exploitation pressure and those posing the highest risks to human health or the environment. At the same time there is increasing competition for land resources for different needs such as biofuel production. Potentially some of this land requirement could be met by production of biomass on brownfield or other marginal land, thereby improving the land while applying the crop cultivation as part of an integrated management strategy. The design and decision making for such a strategy will be site specific. A decision support framework, the Rejuvenate DST (decision support tool) has been developed with the aim of supporting such site specific decision making. This tool is presented here, and has been tested by applying it to a number of case study sites. The consequent SWOT (strength, weakness, opportunities and threats) analysis is discussed and evaluated. The DST was found to be systematic, transparent, and applicable for diverse sites in France, Romania and Sweden, in addition to the sites to which it was applied through its development. The DST is regarded as especially useful if applied as a checklist in an iterative way throughout the decision process, from identifying potential crops to identifying knowledge gaps, working/non-working management strategies and potential risks. The DST also provides a structure promoting effective stakeholder engagement.
authors.affiliation: University of Gothenburg, Department of Earth Sciences, PO Box 460, SE-405 30 Göteborg, Sweden; COWI AB, PO Box 12076, SE-402 41 Göteborg, Sweden. Electronic address: yvan@cowi.se.
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Andersson-Sköld
authors.affiliation: School of Environment and Technology, University of Brighton, Brighton, UK; r3 Environmental Technology Ltd, Room 120, Soil Research Centre, Russell Building, PO Box 233, Whiteknights, Reading RG6 6DW, UK.
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Bardos
authors.affiliation: Université de Franche-Comté, UMR6249, Laboratoire « Chrono-Environnement », 4 place Tharradin, BP 71427, 25 211 Montbéliard, France; Université de Lorraine, Faculté des Sciences & Technologies, 54506 Vandoeuvre-les-Nancy Cedex, France.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Chalot
authors.affiliation: INERIS, Clean and Sustainable Technologies and Processes Unit, DRC/RISK, Parc Technologique Alata, BP2, 60550 Verneuil en Halatte, France.
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Bert
authors.affiliation: R&D National Institute for Metals and Radioactive Resources (INCDMRR-ICPMRR), 70 Carol I Blvd, sector 2, 020917 Bucharest, Romania.
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Crutu
authors.affiliation: Université de Lorraine, Faculté des Sciences & Technologies, 54506 Vandoeuvre-les-Nancy Cedex, France.
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Phanthavongsa
authors.affiliation: INERIS, Clean and Sustainable Technologies and Processes Unit, DRC/RISK, Parc Technologique Alata, BP2, 60550 Verneuil en Halatte, France.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Delplanque
authors.affiliation: DECHEMA e. V. Chemische Technik Forschungsförderung und Tagungen Theodor-Heuss-Allee, 25, 60486 Frankfurt am Main, Germany.
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Track
authors.affiliation: School of Environment and Technology, University of Brighton, Brighton, UK.
authors.forename: A B
authors.initials: AB
authors.lastname: Cundy
mesh_terms: D000383:Agriculture; D018533:Biomass; D003247:Conservation of Natural Resources / Q000379:methods*; D003657:Decision Making; D003661:Decision Support Techniques; D005602:France; D012383:Romania; D013548:Sweden
keywords: Biofuel; Decision support tool (DST); Marginal land; Phyto-remediation; Risk based land management