PT Journal
AU Csikos, N
   Schwanebeck, M
   Kuhwald, M
   Szilassi, P
   Duttmann, R
TI Density of Biogas Power Plants as An Indicator of Bioenergy Generated Transformation of Agricultural Landscapes
SO Sustainability
JI Sustainability
PY 2019
BP 2500
VL 11
IS 9
PU MDPI AG
DI 10.3390/su11092500
WP https://macau.uni-kiel.de/receive/macau_mods_00000216
LA en
DE renewable energies; biogas power plants; silage maize; pasture; landscape metrics; land cover change; landscape diversity; agricultural diversity
SN 2071-1050
AB The increasing use of biogas, produced from energy crops like silage maize, is supposed to
noticeably change the structures and patterns of agricultural landscapes in Europe. The main objective
of our study is to quantify this assumed impact of intensive biogas production with the example of
an agrarian landscape in Northern Germany. Therefore, we used three different datasets; Corine
Land Cover (CLC), local agricultural statistics (Agrar-Struktur-Erhebung, ASE), and data on biogas
power plants. Via kernel density analysis, we delineated impact zones which represent different
levels of bioenergy-generated transformations of agrarian landscapes. We cross-checked the results
by the analyses of the land cover and landscape pattern changes from 2000 to 2012 inside the impact
zones. We found significant correlations between the installed electrical capacity (IC) and land cover
changes. According to our findings, the landscape pattern of cropland—expressed via landscape
metrics (mean patch size (MPS), total edge (TE), mean shape index (MSI), mean fractal dimension
index (MFRACT)—increased and that of pastures decreased since the beginning of biogas production.
Moreover, our study indicates that the increasing number of biogas power plants in certain areas
is accompanied with a continuous reduction in crop diversity and a homogenization of land use in
the same areas. We found maximum degrees of land use homogenisation in areas with highest IC.
Our results show that a Kernel density map of the IC of biogas power plants might offer a suitable
first indicator for monitoring and quantifying landscape change induced by biogas production.
PI Basel
ER