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Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons

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Michigan Technological University

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Bioenergy

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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

Wisconsin Non-Industrial Private Forest Landowners And Wood-Based Bioenergy, Jennifer L. Dunn Jan 2018

Wisconsin Non-Industrial Private Forest Landowners And Wood-Based Bioenergy, Jennifer L. Dunn

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Wood-based bioelectricity production is expanding due to its ability to reduce greenhouse gas emissions compared to conventional fossil fuel resources. U.S. non-industrial private forest landowners (NIPFs) are key to the production of wood-based bioelectricity since they own 59% of the forestland in the country that could supply bioelectricity feedstocks (The National Association of State Foresters 2018). This is particularly important in states like Wisconsin with a mandatory renewable portfolio electricity standard (RPS). My dissertation focuses on issues around Wisconsin bioelectricity production including related NIPF views and the creation of the state’s sustainable biomass harvesting guidelines. In Chapter Two, I present …


The Utility Of The Participatory Approach For Sustainable Development Assessments, Ashma Vaidya Jan 2016

The Utility Of The Participatory Approach For Sustainable Development Assessments, Ashma Vaidya

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

‘Sustainability’ may be a generalizable concept; its definition however, heavily depends upon context. Understanding the context (sociocultural, environmental, socioeconomic, political etc.) is crucial for defining and assessing the sustainability of any given socio-ecological system. This point underlies our research design and objectives. The primary objectives of this research were to understand the sustainability context in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, and to use it to develop a sustainability assessment framework for a potential forest-based bioenergy industry in the region. We first reviewed top-down and bottom-up sustainability assessment frameworks. Then we used the best-suited approach i.e. bottom-up participatory approach, to pursue …