Pilot cases


map-pilot-cases

Location of SEEMLA pilot cases

The SEEMLA approach will be developed in the following European regions: Lusatia, in Germany, East Macedonia and Thrace, in Greece, as well as Vinnitsa, Poltava Volyn and Lviv in Ukraine. Proposals and feedback from regional stakeholders will be considered to refie the approach and to increase awareness of local supply chain actors. Main factors that will be taken into account are sustainability parameters, biomass productivity, economic balance, technical and financial resources for biomass exploitation, plant characteristics, and accessibility.

 

 

 

Assessment of marginality

Soil fertility as one central factor which determines land marginality was assessed at all study sites by means of the SQR method [Mueller et al, 2007: The Muencheberg Soil Quality Rating (SQR)]. This assessment was carried out during field visits in summer 2016. Results are summarized in the SEEMLA D5.2 report which is available from this website.

Results of soil fertility assessment using the SQR method

As a result all selected case study sites (with the only exception of one Ukrainian site) can be regarded as clearly marginal with SQR values (final score) below 40. The lowest SQR basic score was awarded to soil of German study sites. They represent highly anthropogenically disturbed soils with artificially created substrates and with very young and undeveloped soils. Such sites are frequent at former industrial or traffic areas.

Final scores above 35 (but below 40) for some of the Ukrainian sites indicate poor to moderate soil fertility. They represent underutilized former agricultural lands which were in use for traditional intensive farming until 20-30 years before now but are often endangered by waterlogging.

Test sites

The SEEMLA approach will be developed in the following European regions: Lusatia, in Germany, East Macedonia and Thrace, in Greece, as well as Vinnitsa, Poltava Volyn and Lviv in Ukraine. Proposals and feedback from regional stakeholders will be considered to refit the approach and to increase awareness of local supply chain actors. Main factors that will be taken into account are sustainability parameters, biomass productivity, economic balance, technical and financial resources for biomass exploitation, plant characteristics, and accessibility.

For that reason test sites are under preparation. Different bioenergy crops will be grown in the described European regions under marginal ecological site conditions. The success of this approach will be carefully monitored during two vegetation periods.