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Climate Change and Forest Development: Impacts and Evolution from the Perspective of the Sustainability of the Resources

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A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Air, Climate Change and Sustainability".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 August 2020) | Viewed by 10022

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Special Issue Editors

Dr. Leonel Jorge Ribeiro Jorge Nunes

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Guest Editor

ICAAM—Instituto de Ciências Agrárias e Ambientais Mediterrânicas, Universidade de Évora, 7000-083 Évora, Portugal
Interests: forest management; sustainability; circular economy; biomass energy; rural development
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Dr. Catarina Isabel Rodrigues Meireles

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Guest Editor

MED-Institute of Mediterranean Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, University of Évora, Évora, Portugal
Interests: ecological restoration; nature-based solutions for agricultural lands
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Prof. Dr. Carlos José Pinto Gomes

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Guest Editor

Department of landscape, Environment and Planning(DPAO), University of Évora, Rua Romão Ramalho, nº 59, 7000-671 Évora, Portugal
Interests: flora; geobotany; management of natural plant heritage; natural and seminatural habitats; vegetation
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Prof. Dr. Nuno Manuel Cabral de Almeida Ribeiro

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Guest Editor

1. ICAAM—Instituto de Ciências Agrárias e Ambientais Mediterrânicas, Pólo da Mitra, Universidade de Évora, 7006-554 Évora, Portugal
2. Departamento de Fitotecnia, Pólo da Mitra, Universidade de Évora, 7002-554 Évora, Portugal
Interests: mathematical modeling of tree growth and the construction of spatially explicit growth models; development of computer applications of the mentioned growth models; development of decision support models applied to the sustainable management of forest stands
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Climate change is a significant concern of humankind today, which is likely to be the biggest challenge that man has ever faced in his long overhaul on planet Earth. Climate change has affected the most diverse aspects of Earth’s systems, including those that directly influence the daily activities of human populations, such as agricultural production, fisheries, and forest management. It is in this sector, where the supply of primary raw materials so important, that this Special Issue is centered, where we intend to analyze how climate change is affecting the development of forest resources, and how this influence will conditionate the evolution of forests and sustainability.

Dear Colleagues,

The long-term transformation of the energetic paradigm, from fossil to sustainable energy sources, is one of the central challenges of the 21st century, but others can be included, even if caused previously, such as climate change and its impacts. Such a transition requires many changes on a technical and organizational level. The successful implementation of the path to mitigation requires not only changing the current state-of-the-art, but also the implementation of a new set of measures. The goal must therefore be to understand all of the impacts caused by climate change so as to foresee forest evolution.

This Special Issue will focus on sustainability, climate change, and forest management. On the one hand, several innovative and alternative concepts could be presented, but the topics of forest management policy, circular economy, life-cycle assessment, and supply chain could also play a major role. Models on various temporal and geographical scales could be developed in order to understand the conditions of technical change, as well as organizational change. New methods of modeling, which can fulfil the technical and physical boundary conditions, and nevertheless consider economic environmental and social aspects, could be developed.

References:

NUNES, L.J.R., MEIRELES, C.I.R., GOMES C.J.P., ALMEIDA RIBEIRO N.M.C. (2019), “Socio-economic aspects of the forest in Portugal: recent evolution and perspectives of sustainability of the resource”, Forests (MDPI), 10(5), 361. https://doi.org/10.3390/f10050361

NUNES, L.J.R., MEIRELES, C.I.R., GOMES C.J.P., ALMEIDA RIBEIRO N.M.C. (2019), “The evolution of climate changes in Portugal: determination of trend series and its impact on forest development”, Climate (MDPI), 7(6), 78. https://doi.org/10.3390/cli7060078

Dr. Leonel Jorge Ribeiro Nunes
Dr. Catarina Isabel Rodrigues Meireles
Prof. Dr. Carlos José Pinto Gomes
Prof. Dr. Nuno Manuel Cabral de Almeida Ribeiro
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

Forest management
Forest development
Sustainability
Natural resources
Rural development

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

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9 pages, 477 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Biomass Torrefaction as a Key Driver for the Sustainable Development and Decarbonization of Energy Production

by Leonel J. R. Nunes and João C. O. Matias

Sustainability 2020, 12(3), 922; https://doi.org/10.3390/su12030922 - 27 Jan 2020

Cited by 31 | Viewed by 3972

Abstract

Climate change is a reality that affects the daily lives of people around the world, with a set of effects that are systematically felt. If there is still discussion about the real cause behind these phenomena, with differing opinions defending the anthropic origin or the origin in terrestrial cycles of geological scale, it seems to be unanimously attributed to the increased concentration of greenhouse gases—particularly to CO₂. That is, whatever the source of CO₂, it is commonly accepted that this is the cause of the acceleration of the climate change process, and the occurrence of extreme climate phenomena. The use of energy from renewable sources, such as solar or wind, can contribute to the replacement of energy generated from fossil sources. However, these forms of energy are dependent on uncontrollable climatic factors and are, therefore, dependent on the existence of alternatives that, when in reserve, can be activated at any time as soon as the power grid requests their activation. Thus, biomass emerges as an alternative capable of providing this answer, although it also has numerous disadvantages. Torrefaction may be the technology that corrects these drawbacks and allows for the successful use of biomass in the replacement the coal used in power generation, contributing significantly to the reduction of CO₂ emissions. In addition to this possibility, it is necessary to introduce forest management models that effectively make use of all material flows generated during forestry operations, creating value-added chains, with a view toward a circular economy and resource sustainability. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Climate Change and Forest Development: Impacts and Evolution from the Perspective of the Sustainability of the Resources)

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Review

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10 pages, 1523 KiB

Open AccessReview

Forest Management and Climate Change Mitigation: A Review on Carbon Cycle Flow Models for the Sustainability of Resources

by Leonel J.R. Nunes, Catarina I.R. Meireles, Carlos J. Pinto Gomes and Nuno M.C. Almeida Ribeiro

Sustainability 2019, 11(19), 5276; https://doi.org/10.3390/su11195276 - 25 Sep 2019

Cited by 39 | Viewed by 5435

Abstract

With climate change being a certainty, which today is probably the biggest challenge humanity is facing, and also accepting that greenhouse gas emissions are the main cause accelerating climate change, there is an urgent need to find solutions that lead to the mitigation of the already intense, and in some cases, even violent, effects. Forests can most easily work as carbon sinks. However, it is convenient to analyze the residence time of this carbon in forests, as this residence time will depend on the type of forest management used. This paper aims to analyze forest management models from a perspective of carbon residence time in forests, dividing the models into three types: carbon conservation, carbon storage, and carbon substitution. Carbon conservation models are those models in which the amounts of carbon stored only replace the carbon released, mainly by the industrial use of raw materials. Carbon storage models are models that foster the growth of forest areas to ensure that the amount of carbon stored grows, and where the ratio clearly leans towards sequestration and storage. Carbon substitution models are models that move towards the substitution of fossil carbon by renewable carbon, thus contributing to the creation of a neutral flow. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Climate Change and Forest Development: Impacts and Evolution from the Perspective of the Sustainability of the Resources)

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