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Coverage

WISDOM for cities

Project time

August 2006 – May 2007

Objectives/scope

Review of the nexus between rapid urbanization processes, poverty and woodfuel consumption trends in the urban and peri-urban areas of developing countries. Development of analytical methods and planning tools aiming at a sound and objective definition of urban/rural interaction in order to support urban wood energy planning and policy formulation.

Institutional settings

FAO’s Forest Products Service and Forest Conservation Service

Scale/resolution

SE Asia test cases: Raster analysis resolution: 30 arc-second grid (0.92x0.92 km at equator); East Africa test cases: 5 arc-minute cells (9.2 * 9.2 km at equator)

Demand features

Reference to Demand Module data from WISDOM analyses of Southeast Asia and East & Central Africa

Supply features

Reference to Supply Module data from WISDOM analyses of Southeast Asia and East & Central Africa

Integration features

Reference to Supply Module data from WISDOM analyses of Southeast Asia and East & Central Africa with additional analysis of (i) accessibility (physical and legal) relative to the selected methodological test cases, and (ii) definition of the “commercial” fraction of local woody biomass surpluses suitable for woodfuel supply of urban areas.

Woodshed/bio-shed analysis

First conceptual, methodological and technical definition of “urban woodshed” as the potential sustainable woodfuel supply zones of cities. The WISDOM methodology is here expanded to map woodfuel surplus and deficit areas in terms of local supply/demand patterns and to define and map urban woodsheds. The new Woodshed Module is here applied to urban contexts but in other studies it’s used to analyze the location of hypothetical biomass plants or the supply zone of existing ones.

Integration with other aspects

In the case study over Cambodia the woodshed analysis was combined with poverty-related nutritional parameters in order to qualify the living conditions of the population living within Phnom Penh and Battambang woodsheds.

Findings/conclusions

This paper examines the environmental and socio-economic changes induced by rapid urban growth and proposes conceptual and methodological tools to support urban wood energy planning and the establishment of sustainable wood energy systems. From a “WISDOM” perspective, the main result is the conceptual, methodological and technical definition of “urban woodshed” and of the new Woodshed Module.
In addition, the woodshed analysis is implemented over selected cities in East Africa (Dar-es-Salaam, Arusha-Moshi, Kampala and Khartoum) and Southeast Asia (Phnom Penh, Battambang, Vientiane and Luang Prabang). The studies reveal how deeply the supply zones extend into rural areas and forests, with woodfuels often travelling several hundred kilometres to reach urban consumers, and highlight the essential contribution of wall-to-wall analysis in the definition of the zones of influence of individual cities.
To support operational wood energy planning within priority areas defined at the strategic level, the study presents the features and parameters to be collected for accurate woodfuel flow analysis and discusses best practices in urban and peri-urban land management for the integration of woodfuel production in multifunctional urban forestry.

Publications

Drigo R. and F. Salbitano. 2008. WISDOM for Cities. Analysis of wood energy and urbanization aspects using WISDOM methodology. FAO Forestry Department. Urban forestry – Wood energy. FAO. (in English and French)