Bioenergy systems planning using location-allocation and landscape ecology design principles

Rural energy planning is a nexus of sustainable development issues, particularly the sustainable utilization of biomass resources, on which rural parts of the developing world remain critically dependent. A landscape based rural bioenergy planning framework is presented, which is based on location-allocation and landscape ecology principles and considers both domestic and commercial energy demands and energy flows, as well as the landscape impact of the required bioenergy production zones. p-median modelling principles underly the location-allocation formulation. Optimized bioenergy landscape designs are presented, which illustrate both accessibility and landscape ecology objectives.