Dr. Kesheng Shu
Postdoctoral Researcher
Research group Climate Change and Security (CLISEC)
Address
Contact
Title
The social network of bioenergy landscapes: A field investigation in Yangtze River Delta Economic Circle of China
Mentor
Prof. Dr. Jürgen Scheffran
Background of the project
Modern bioenergy has experienced a worldwide boost in the last decades, in part reflecting concerns about energy security and climate change. Bioenergy can meet diverse energy demands and play a unique role in promoting rural development (Shu 2016; Scheffran 2009). While a rapidly growing bioenergy industry may bring social, economic and environmental benefits, its unprecedented scale of utilization poses a set of challenges to society including land competition between food and biomass provision (Shu et al. 2015; Ewing, Msangi 2009; Tirado et al. 2010), traffic congestion (Shu et al. 2017a; Richard 2010), and marginalization of small-holder farmers (Shu et al. 2017b).
To mitigate adverse side effects, previous studies have proposed to use a variety of sustainability principles, criteria and standards, stressing a comprehensive and inclusive consideration of the economic, social and environmental issues mentioned above (Buchholz et al. 2009; Lewandowski, Faaij 2006; Markevicius et al. 2010; Scheffran 2010). As part of this effort, my postdoctoral project aims at clarifying major interactions of bioenergy stakeholders from economic, environmental and societal perspectives. Particularly, I focus on a comprehensive impact assessment of bioenergy utilization on security of food, water, soil, climate, ecosystem services, and social development. The findings will provide advice to policy makers and help better regulate the sustainable development of bioenergy.
Status of research
This field investigation is an integral part of my postdoctoral research project “Bioenergy landscapes in China: Blessing or Cursing?”, sponsored by KNU. In the first half of the two-year funding period, I have designed and developed an analytical framework of bioenergy landscapes, consisting of central stakeholders and peripheral stakeholders (Fig. 1). The central stakeholders constitute the bioenergy organization, responsible for the bioenergy industry. The peripheral stakeholders locate outside or at the margin of the supply chain. While indirectly affected by the production of bioenergy, they exert their own positive or negative influence on the supply chain. To demonstrate the operational mechanisms of bioenergy landscapes, I simulate the decision-making processes of all central stakeholders. This includes the decisions of biomass feedstock producers and bioenergy plant operators. In total, four peer-reviewed papers have been published in this research period.
Despite the development of a novel analytic framework to assess the interactions of bioenergy stakeholders, there are still some research gaps: (1) Interactions between central and peripheral stakeholders include material and information flows. Compared to the detailed description of observed material flows among central stakeholders, our understanding of information flows is rather limited. Important psychological, customary, and institutional factors are not yet considered. (2) The existing assessment of material flows focuses primarily on economic benefits of bioenergy landscapes, but pays little attention to the other two pillars of sustainability: environment and society. To better understand the environmental impacts of bioenergy, more data are needed on mitigation and adaptation strategies of small-holder farmers to climate change and on crop management-related greenhouse gas, nitrogen, and phosphorus emissions. Concerning the societal impacts of emerging bioenergy landscapes, more data are needed, which characterize the complex role of bioenergy in energy transitions and urbanization. This includes data on rural-urban interactions, for example labor migration and marginalization of small-holder farmers. (3) The initial framework has been constructed using data about local practices from 2000 to 2012. After five years of rapid development, I want to verify, update, and extend previously collected data and better understand the pace of change of local practice.
Fig. 1: Analytical framework of stakeholders of bioenergy landscapes (Shu et al. 2017b)
Objectives
The main purpose of this project is to collect empirical data for a better understanding of the social network of bioenergy landscapes in China. This understanding is a qualitative foundation for the research in my postdoctoral project, i.e. How do investment (economic), climate change mitigation and adaptation (environmental) and urbanization (societal) policy instruments affect the development of bioenergy landscapes in China?