Sarah Mubareka

European Commission | ec · Forests and Bioeconomy Unit

EFDM-geo is a spatially-explicit forest growth modelling system that was developed to support the assessment of wood availability in Europe for the forest-based sector and the bioeconomy. This document describes EFDM-geo as it was implemented for seamless pan-European modelling, allowing for continental-wide scenario runs and the integration of dem...

HIGHLIGHTS → Deadwood (DW) plays a critical role in maintaining biodiversity and ecosystem resilience, as well as other forest ecosystem processes, such as nutrient and carbon cycling and forest fires. → Salvage logging is increasing in European forests to recover biomass loss due to natural disturbances, and thus influences the amount of DW left i...

This briefing describes the characteristics of primary and old-growth forests and assesses its resilience to natural disturbances, in particular wildfires. Likewise, the role of primary and old-growth forests on wildfire risk is analysed with a view on the EU’s policy aim of strictly protecting these forests as called for in the EU’s Biodiversity a...

The European Union (EU) uses biodmass to meet its needs for food and feed, energy, and materials. The demand and supply of biomass have environmental, social, and economic impacts. Understanding biomass supply, demand, costs, and their associated impacts is particularly important for relevant EU policy areas, to facilitate solid and evidence-based...

Monitoring systems allow decision makers to assess the performance and progress towards specific strategic objectives that reflect an overall vision. The bioeconomy consists of complex social, economic, and environmental systems. The EU Bioeconomy Monitoring System was developed by the JRC to track economic, environmental and social progress toward...

The Bioeconomy is both an enabler and an end for the European Green Deal transformation: achieving the EGD transformation entails transforming the very meaning of sustainable bioeconomy. Among the deepest and most effective leverage points to transform a system are the worldviews driving our behaviours: they yield an enormous power to influence the...

— This chapter presents an ensemble of various EU forest biomass reference datasets, based on best available data, with a higher level of harmonisation and spatial resolution compared to existing data published independently by National Forest Inventories (NFI) or produced for international reporting. — In Europe, National Forest Inventories (NFI)...

This document describes the progress made in 2022 for the development of the EU Bioeconomy Monitoring System. It contains an overview of the purpose of the system, its current status and future outlook for 2023. Technical details of the back-end and front-end are also provided. This is the third of an annual reporting scheme to document and inform...

The EU Biomass Flows tool is a visualisation, in the form of Sankey diagrams, of the flows of biomass for each sector of the bioeconomy, from supply to uses including trade. It displays the harmonised data from the various Joint Research Centre (JRC) units contributing to the BIOMASS Assessment study of the JRC3. The diagrams enable deeper analysis...

The debate on forest bioenergy sustainability has been so far dominated by assessments made through the carbon emissions lens. The biodiversity perspective has been largely missing. The European Green Deal's ambitious targets have brought biodiversity and ecosystem condition restoration and conservation to the core of the EU's legislative portfolio...

Forests are under pressure to provide biomass for different uses, but also to mitigate climate change and house biodiversity. In the EU, there is an intense debate around which functions to prioritize, and the role of scientists is increasingly critical in the quest for policy coherence.

The EU Bioeconomy Monitoring System is pursuant to the Action 3.3.2 of the EU Bioeconomy Strategy (COM/2018/673). It addresses the need for a comprehensive monitoring system by establishing a mechanism to measure the progress of the EU bioeconomy towards the five strategic objectives it tackles. It defines and implements a comprehensive monitoring...

The EU Bioeconomy Monitoring System is pursuant to the Action 3.3.2 of the EU Bioeconomy Strategy (COM/2018/673). It addresses the need for a comprehensive monitoring system by establishing a mechanism to measure the progress of the EU bioeconomy towards the five strategic objectives it tackles. It defines and implements a comprehensive monitoring...

Wood resource balance (WRB) sheets are most useful in providing an overview of sources and uses of woody biomass, highlighting data gaps and inconsistencies. The amount of woody biomass used in manufacturing of wood-based products and for heat and power exceed the total reported amount of woody biomass sources for all available years. We analyse th...

In the report on the use of woody biomass for energy production in the EU, written under the auspices of the Biodiversity for 2030 Strategy, JRC scientists analyse the sources and trends as well as sustainability pathways for the use of woody biomass for bioenergy in the EU that could mitigate climate change while maintaining or improving forest bi...

The EU Bioeconomy Strategy, updated in 2018, in its Action Plan pledges an EU-wide, internationally coherent monitoring system to track economic, environmental and social progress towards a sustainable bioeconomy. This paper presents the approach taken by the European Commission’s (EC) Joint Research Centre (JRC) to develop such a system. To accomp...

The quantification of forests available for wood supply (FAWS) is essential for decision-making with regard to the maintenance and enhancement of forest resources and their contribution to the global carbon cycle. The provision of harmonized forest statistics is necessary for the development of forest associated policies and to support decision-mak...

Forests are at the intersection of European policies on climate, energy and environmental protection and will contribute significantly to the shift of the European economy towards a greater and more sustainable use of renewable resources. Knowledge of the current and future provision and use of woody biomass is necessary to support multiple policie...

The report is organised in four sections addressing respectively forestry, agriculture, fisheries & aquaculture, and algae. The reported data is centred on 2013. Total weight is generally expressed as a million tonnes (109 kg or Mt) of dry weight for the forestry and agricultural sector. In addition, for the fisheries and aquaculture, and algae sec...

A bio-based economy may be defined as one using “... production paradigms that rely on biological processes and, as with natural ecosystems, use natural inputs, expend minimum amounts of energy and do not produce waste as all materials discarded by one process are inputs for another process and are reused in the ecosystem". The transition towards a...

The European Atlas of Forest Tree Species is the first comprehensive publication of such a unique and essential environmental resource, that is, our trees. Leading scientists and forestry professionals have contributed in the many stages of the production of this atlas, through the collection of ground data on the location of tree species, elaborat...

Keywords: The ecosystem–water–food–energy nexus Freshwater ecosystems services Mapping SWAT modeling European Union Danube river basin a b s t r a c t Water, food and energy are at the core of human needs and there is a boundless complex cycle among these three basic human needs. Ecosystems are in the center of this nexus, since they contribute to...

This paper presents a modelling approach for the spatial allocation of second-generation feedstock (lignocellulosic crops) under a reference policy scenario in European Union of 28 Member State (EU-28). The land-use modelling platform (LUMP) was used in order to simulate the land-use changes from 2010 to 2050. Within the LUMP, the land demand for t...

Green infrastructure (GI), a network of nature, semi-natural areas and green space, delivers essential ecosystem services which underpin human well-being and quality of life. Maintaining ecosystem services through the development of GI is therefore increasingly recognized by policies as a strategy to cope with potentially changing conditions in the...

This paper describes the conceptual design of a regional modelling framework to assess scenarios for the forest-based bioeconomy. The framework consists of a core set of tools: a partial equilibrium model for the forest sector, a forestry dynamics model for forest growth and harvest and a wood resources balance sheet. The framework can be expanded...

Based upon the principle that the changes in the cover and use of the surface of the earth depend on natural processes and are, at the same time, shaped by demographic, economic, cultural, political, and technological drivers, the Joint Research Centre has developed the Land Use Modelling Platform (LUMP) to assess the consequences of policies with...

The Cohesion policy for the programming period 2014-2020 is analyzed in terms of its likely land use and environmental impacts using the Land Use Modelling Platform (LUMP). This report describes in detail the process and the methodology by which the ex-ante impact assessment was made, and presents the results for Austria, Czech Republic, Germany, a...

A pan-European Land Use Modelling Platform was developed in order to provide projected land use maps at a detailed geographical scale (100m2, regional or country level), translating policy scenarios into land-use changes such as afforestation and deforestation; pressure on natural areas; abandonment of productive agricultural areas; and urbanizat...

The JRC PESETA II study integrates the consequences of several separate climate change impacts into a macroeconomic CGE model. This enables comparison of the different impacts based on common metrics (household welfare and economic activity). The study uses a large set of climate model runs (twelve) and impact categories (agriculture, energy demand...

The JRC PESETA II study integrates the consequences of several separate climate change impacts into a macroeconomic CGE model. This enables comparison of the different impacts based on common metrics (household welfare and economic activity). The study uses a large set of climate model runs (twelve) and impact categories (agriculture, energy demand...

Whereas the grassland measure results in the largest net increase of GI, the afforestation measure results in the overall largest number of hectares of key nodes and links within the network. Land conversions occur under the critical GI nodes and links, with a large increase in agricultural areas, especially for the riparian measure under critical...

Sustainability science explores the interactions between human activities on the Earth’s life support systems. Unless we understand these interactions, we will not be able to design a path towards sustainable development. In this report we focus our attention on water as key resource for human health and ecosystem health and as archetypal resource...

In the context of the impact assessment for the policy document "Blueprint to safeguard Europe's waters", the European Commission has developed a common baseline scenario bringing together climate, land use and socio-economic scenarios and looking at the implications for water resources availability and use under different policy scenarios. This st...

An assessment for Europe on available water resources and a comparison with water demands from various economic sectors shows that freshwater availability over the European continent varies significantly. Large areas in Spain and Eastern Europe have on average less than 200 mm generated freshwater per year. At the same time, in parts of those areas...

This article describes and compares six disaggregation methods used to produce a dasymetric population density grid of the European Union at a 100 m resolution. Population data were initially available at commune level. The main ancillary information source was CORINE land cover, a land cover map distributed by the European Environment Agency. Info...

In this paper we introduce the new configuration of the EU-ClueScanner model (EUCS100) that is designed for evaluating the impact of policy alternatives on the European territory at the high spatial resolution of 100 meters. The high resolution in combination with the vast extent of the model called for considerable reprogramming to optimize proces...

Conflicts may be directly responsible for the modification of features in the landscape by causing damage to built-up areas or to the environment. Landscape features may also be indirectly affected by conflict as the result of changes in the way of life of inhabitants and their use of natural resource. Conflict-induced changes in landuse features m...

The Municipality of Koper is one of the case studies in the European research project PLUREL. The project is aimed at developing new strategies and tools for future land use planning and prediction. Some scenarios for possible future land use have been prepared and spatially defined, based upon different indicators and trends, using the MOLAND mode...

The objective of this document is to summarize the current work conducted within GMOSS regarding the use of Earth Observation (EO) and geospatial data to derive indicators for the presence of populations and their characteristics. The objective of this paper is to create a link between the Earth Observation products generated and the demand for inf...

It is useful to have a disaggregated population database at uniform grid units in disaster situations. This study presents a method for settlement location probability and population density estimations at a 90 m resolution for northern Iraq using the Shuttle Radar Topographic Mission (SRTM) digital terrain model and Landsat Enhanced Thematic Mappe...

Remote sensing and security, terms which are not usually associated, have found a common platform this decade with the conjuring of the GMOSS network (Global Monitoring for Security and Stability), whose mandate is to discover new applications for satellite-derived imagery to security issues. This study focuses on human security, concentrating on t...

Abstract Aim Our aim was to produce a uniform ‘regional’ land-cover map of South and Southeast Asia based on ‘sub-regional’ mapping results generated in the context of the Global Land Cover 2000 project. Location The ‘region’ of tropical and sub-tropical South and Southeast Asia stretches from the Himalayas and the southern border of China in the n...

Painting an accurate picture of the situation on the ground in countries in crisis is vital for the efficiency of humanitarian aid and reconstruction agencies. This study describes a method for standardising and mapping the plethora of open-source information. The test site for the study is post-conflict Iraq. Important information on aid distribut...