New-C-Land: an intuitive interface
What does biomass from a neglected site mean?
In the context of this project, “biomass” refers to vegetable crops (willow, alder, poplar, miscanthus, hemp, etc.) that can be used for energy or materials production. Biomass can be used in multiple sectors that contribute to the growth of the biobased economy in France and Belgium:
- Bioenergy: anaerobic digestion, biofuels, wood energy.
- Eco-construction: insulation, construction materials.
- Management of green spaces.
- Biorefinery: extraction of molecules of interest for the manufacture of products (pharmacology, cosmetics …).
- Textile: hemp, linen, etc.
A “neglected” site is one that cannot accommodate a real estate or food culture project, but which can be valorized through the production of plant biomass. Once the site is valued, its marginality becomes an economic and environmental opportunity for its manager.
This interface aims to enable the connection of biomass producers and end-users and to promote the development of local biomass sectors (anaerobic digestion, eco-construction, management of green spaces, etc.). This intuitive and bilingual interface is fed by non-confidential public data through the contribution of users who wish to source plant biomass and of neglected site managers who wish to develop it.
Call to site managers, Belgian and French municipalities
In order to continuously feed this mapping (which will make it possible to increase the number of planting projects), the New-C-Land team is appealing to cities and towns, private owners or site managers. This call aims to encourage them to make known their abandoned lands and to add them to the cartography.
Advance the action plans of cities and towns in favor of the climate
With the development of the biobased economy, the demand for plant raw materials is growing. It is therefore crucial today to consider spaces that can accommodate crops in order to meet future needs and in order to support the biomass recovery sectors present in cross-border areas.
For public entities, for example, upgrading their marginal sites with high biomass potential in order to sustainably produce biomass represents a positive initiative in favor of reducing their energy consumption and CO2 emissions. Once referenced, the sites will be able to accommodate plantations that will then be valued and intelligently used by actors and businesses in the area. The sites concerned are sites abandoned for socio-economic reasons (wastelands, remote sites, forgotten sites, etc.), sites with low productivity, contaminated sites that cannot accommodate food crops or temporary marginal sites (awaiting conversion – looking for projects).
Who is this mapping for?
Managers include municipalities, farmers, manufacturers, individuals looking for tools to enhance their sites in a sustainable manner, administrations and ministerial offices dealing with the management of abandoned sites and/or regulating the recovery of biomass, design offices, research and education organizations in the field of soil management, environmental protection, land use and landscape planning.
The user center brings together operators and service providers in the biobased sector. It also includes end-users such as companies that use biomass in the design of products, materials or energies, and research centers and universities active in this sector.
New-C-Land is supported by UGent-Ecochem (coordinator), ValBiom, Atrasol, GxABT-EESP, ISA-Lille, INERIS, INAGRO, Nord-Pas de Calais Chamber of Agriculture and DRAAF.
For more information:
https://www.newcland.eu/fr/actualites/
