ABSTRACT
Land use deals with the most important factor in the production of bioenergy, and information on land use is indispensable. Suitable bioenergy resource sites can then be identified as those areas that have the appropriate natural conditions for certain crops and also where a change in present land use is feasible. Planning for future land use builds on two sets of data: present land uses and scientific descriptions of the physical and climatic characteristics of the land. For investigating future bioenergy-related land uses, the bioenergy planner would benefit greatly from detailed scientific maps on topography, climate, soils, vegetation, and geology. There are essentially two different approaches to land use planning. The first is to have a certain land use in mind and to find a suitable geographical location for that use. The other, opposite procedure is, given a certain land area, to determine, the most suitable uses for it.
