TY  - JOUR
A1  - Werner, Andrea
A1  - Werner, Andreas
A1  - Wieland, Ralf
A1  - Kersebaum, Kurt-Christian
A1  - Mirschel, Wilfried
A1  - Ende, Hans-Peter
A1  - Wiggering, Hubert
T1  - Ex ante assessment of crop rotations focusing on energy crops using a multi-attribute decision-making method
JF  - Ecological indicators : integrating monitoring, assessment and management
N2  - The cultivation of plants for use as energy resources is an agricultural and industrial sector with potentially synergistic benefits related to protecting the environment and generating income. Against the background of increasing land-use changes and new agricultural approaches to the production of energy crops, we present a method for identifying future-oriented crop rotations that supports both the economic and environmental components of decision-making strategies with respect to agriculture-related policy decisions (regional mission statements). The conflicting aspects of these objectives can be addressed with the analytic hierarchy process (AHP), a multi-attribute decision-making method that was integrated here. Three models are used to generate simulations of the defined objectives over a planning period of 30 years under the current climate scenario and provide input data for the multi-attribute assessment of several crop rotations. Based on the entire evaluation process, dimensionless global priority vectors are used to indicate how well the crop rotations meet the requirements of the defined mission statement. The method is tested in a municipality in NE Germany. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
KW  - Agricultural management
KW  - Ex ante assessment
KW  - Multi-attribute decision-making
KW  - AHP
KW  - Crop rotation
KW  - Energy crops
KW  - Regional objectives
KW  - Indicators
Y1  - 2014
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolind.2014.03.013
SN  - 1470-160X
SN  - 1872-7034
VL  - 45
SP  - 110
EP  - 122
PB  - Elsevier
CY  - Amsterdam
ER  -