Agriculture and forestry have increasingly become into the centre of formulation of the policies supporting sustainable development. In terms of the environment land is viewed as soil, as a sink for pollution, as a filter for drinking water, and as habitat for wildlife. It provides a link between hydrological, atmospheric, and climatic systems. In economics, land is viewed as scarce space for locating economic production activities, infrastructure and dwellings, as productive soil that provides organic and inorganic materials for agriculture, and as provider of aesthetic value and amenity services.
Beyond these pressing general considerations land–use is a considerable economic activity in its own right that impacts on a wide range of other issues. Notable among these, the issue of climate change is probably the most complex. Alternative land–use activities have differential impacts in contributing to GHG emissions such as opportunities for abatement as sinks or providing alternative renewable energy sources (biomass, bio–liquid fuels etc). The assessment of carbon sinks in forestry and agriculture is an important indicator of the selection of optimal GHG abatement policies.
One of these options is the sink enhancement measures could be understood as an instrument for the formulation of climate mitigation goals and simultaneously become a major driver of how our natural environment is managed, as well.
The main topic of the presented paper is to deal with the necessary developments, adjustments, improvements and extensions of (existing) models. That will enable to complete policy analysis in the context of sustainable structures and climate change mitigation. This mainly includes the adjustment currently available models with respect to conditions of Slovakia. We tried to develop an analytical tool to assess economic and environmental effects for enhancing carbon sinks on agricultural lands, which is in the direct relation to assessment of potential for renewable energy generation.
By this paper, we aimed to fill the gap in lack of modeling approaches to quantify cost of carbon sequestration and conclude the consequences for GHG emissions in Slovakia. Therefore, the impact of our research both on long and short–term planning of climate mitigation policies can be considered. The specific contribution of the paper is the use geographic explicit data for the assessment of economic and environmental effects of land–use activities. From our research and from other available studies, the benefits of using GIS technology are in the integration biophysical and socio–economic data in order to plan various sustainable resource management activities can be demonstrated.
In the model we assumed only the agricultural practices, which are used currently. It can be expected that with further support for implementation of RES precisely biomass the involved practices and planted species can produce higher yields and the technologies could be more efficient.
Some of the conclusions in this paper are derived from rather narrow perspective formulated from carbon sequestration and its potential. An economic analysis that considers additional factors might conclude that the displacement of fossil fuel is not the profitable usage of timber. Similarly, the environmental impact assessment might conclude that establishment of short rotation systems in some areas could have negative impact on biodiversity, however it is more profitable than reforestation.
For the future activities, it is necessary to complete detailed studies in the region with higher potential for the biomass production through short rotation systems. Currently, the studies involving the opinion of key stakeholders for scenario construction or correcting model simulation results by the involvement of stakeholders are important step of conducting research in the filed of climate change. The participatory approaches used for the presentation of opinions mainly the local participants allow us to create scenarios more reflecting the conditions on local and regional level. Implementing approaches involving the key stakeholders to the preparation of scenarios will allow as overwhelming constrain of missing social dimension in the model simulation caused by the used GIS data.
In the simulated scenarios, we try to enable the performance of policy assessment that keeping agriculture – forestry and land–use as in the centre of our interest. Both in terms of policies and objectives will also address wider concerns in the fields of climate change and sustainable energy systems.