About
The BioEnergy Allocation and Simulation Tool (BEAST) was developed in the context of a larger joint research project: Strengthen Bioenergy regions (BEST). It is a tool dedicated to assess political goals of woody bioenergy production in the context of available biomass potentials and corresponding economic and ecological criteria on a regional level. It is a useful tool in participative decision making processes by iterative simulation and visualization of complex issues.
Thus, BEAST is a data- and model-driven Decision Support System (DSS) evaluating woody biomass potentials from forests, hedges and trees outside forests as well as short rotation coppice (SRC). The latter one is modelled spatially explicit. This opens the possibility to identify prefered areas for SRC production under different restrictions and goals. Forest wood and wood from outside forests are treated only aggregated.
The output is presented for two 20 year periods from 2011 to 2030 and 2031 to 2050. However, the system is programmed to be adaptable and the source code is published under an open source license to be re-useable.
The software is published in Thiele (submitted). The architecture of a previous version of BEAST without AHP is documented in Thiele & Busch (2015). An application example and method of input data generation is given in Busch & Thiele (2015).
References
Thiele J.C. (submitted) An Open-Source Bioenergy Allocation and Scenario Tool: Facilitating Participative Modeling in Regional Dialogs on Sustainable Land Use and Climate Protection Goals.
Thiele J.C., Busch G. (2015) A Decision Support System to Link Stakeholder Perception with Regional Renewable Energy Goals for Woody Biomass. In: D. Butler Manning, A. Bemmann, M. Bredemeier, N. Lamersdorf, C. Ammer (eds.): Bioenergy from Dendromass for the Sustainable Development of Rural Areas. Wiley-VCH, pp. 433-446.
Busch G., Thiele J.C. (2015) The Bioenergy Allocation and Scenario Tool (BEAST) to Assess Options for the Siting of Short Roation Coppice in Agricultural Landscapes: Tool Development and Case Study Results from the Göttingen District. In: D. Butler Manning, A. Bemmann, M. Bredemeier, N. Lamersdorf, C. Ammer (eds.): Bioenergy from Dendromass for the Sustainable Development of Rural Areas. Wiley-VCH, pp. 23-43.