Evaluation of the potential land for biofuel plant development in the Shaanxi Province, China

As a renewable energy, biofuel has greatly attracted worldwide attention due to the growing demands for cleaner sources of energy as an intervention to mitigate the serious environmental problems associated with fossil fuel consumption. As an important non-food biodiesel plant, Pistacia chinensis has a promising prospect for bioenergy development. Based on the principles of multifactor integrated assessment, this paper provides an operational method for comprehensively evaluating the marginal land resources suitable for developing the plantation of Pistacia chinensis in Shaanxi province, China. The results show that the areas of marginal land resources suitable and fairly suitable for growing Pistacia chinensis in Shaanxi province are 1.21 million hectares and 4.45 million hectares, respectively. The suitable land resources are mainly located in Hanzhong (0.44 million hectares), Ankang (0.30 million hectares), and Shangluo (0.31 million hectares), most of which are moderate dense grassland (accounting for 50.65%), dense grassland (accounting for 21.83%), shrub land (accounting for 8.62%), and sparse forest land (accounting for 15.32%). The comparison between the results and field work data suggests that the pixel size of spatial data and soil organic matter content have important impacts on the final results. The outcome of this research can be used to implement specific policies for developing Pistacia chinensis in China and other countries especially the countries along the Silk Road.