Proposal of methodology for determining of potential residual biomass for agriculture and forestry in Slovak republic

Abstract

The issue of efficient use of biomass as a renewable source of energy in the process of sustainable development of every country is a problem that is often tackled nowadays being also imposed by the legislation of the European Union. In the process of the accession to the EU, the Slovak republic incorporated the obligations as defined by the EU Directive 2001/77/EC on the promotion of electricity produced from renewable energy sources. Out of all the renewable sources of energy, biomass has the greatest economic potential to be used on the territory of Slovakia. The use of biomass for the purposes of electricity generation is the most promising alternative to generate not only thermal but also electrical energy. This paper presents the proposal of methodology developed to determine the utilization potential of residual biomass in the sectors of forestry and agriculture within a certain area of eastern Slovakia. The theoretical proposal is developed based on using Corine Land Cover. The application of Corine Land Cover and GIS tools made it possible to effectively determine residual biomass for the selected sectors of the economy.

Keywords

• Corin Land Cover
• methodology
• residual biomass
• GIS