Martina Modotti (1), Isabella De Meo (1), Alessandro Paletto (2)*, and Gianluca Grilli (3, 4)

1. Council for Agricultural Research and Economics – Agrobiology and Pedology Research
Centre (CREA-ABP), P.za D’Azeglio 30, 50121 Firenze, Italy. E-mail: isabella.demeo@entecra.it
2. Council for Agricultural Research and Economics – Forest Monitoring and Management
Research Unit (CREA-MPF), P.za Nicolini 6, 38100 Villazzano, Trento, Italy.
*E-mail: alessandro.paletto@entecra.it
3. Eurac Research – Institute of Renewable Energy, Drususallee 1, 39100 Bolzano, Italy.
E-mail: gianluca.grilli@eurac.edu
4. Department of civil, environmental and mechanical engineering, University of Trento, via
mesiano 77, 38123 Trento, Italy.

In the last decades, the international energy demand has risen greatly due to the world’s population
growth and the economic development of some big countries (e.g. China, India, Indonesia). The
intensive use of fossil fuels is recognized as unsustainable in the long-term period. In this framework,
renewable energies represent important sources in order to satisfy the energy demand in a sustainable
way. European Union (EU) promotes the use of renewable energy sources (RES) to reduce
greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, to increase energy independence and to promote the renewable
industry. Renewable energy policy must take into account the technical aspects of energy production
and also the environmental, economic and social aspects, following an integrated approach.
Consequently, sustainability assessment has become a fast developing research field and impact
assessment tools – based on methods that take in consideration stakeholders’ opinions and expectations
– are commonly used to support policies or projects implementation. Sustainability Impact
Assessment (SIA) is a tool that supports decision-makers in identifying potential impacts of possible
policy actions. Environmental, economic and social aspects related to renewable energies are often
analyzed with sectorial approaches. To overcome this gap, it is fundamental to develop practical
instruments useful for an integrated assessment considering environmental, technical-logistics,
financial and social parameters of renewable energy systems. Starting from these considerations,
this research investigates the indicators useful to support the SIA of a policy, a plan or a single action
related to a renewable energy system. Social and economic dimensions and related indicators are
analyzed, also including indicators which straddle between socio-economic and environmental sector.
A comprehensive in-depth literature review has been made in order to create a database of criteria
and indicators. After creating the database, authors selected 308 suitable indicators: 93 relating to the
economic dimension, 152 to the socio-political and cultural one and 63 to the social-environmental
dimension. Furthermore, indicators were aggregated into three main impact dimensions (economic,
social-political and social-environmental) and six general criteria. Finally, some recommendations are
given to contribute at developing new indicators for the assessment of effects of renewable energy
systems on sustainability.

Alexander Bardarov* and Milko Milev

Department of Silviculture, Faculty of Forestry, University of Forestry, 10 St. Кliment Ochridski
blvd., 1797 Sofia, Bulgaria. E-mails: a.bardarov@pdm-services.eu*; m_milev@abv.bg

Black pine (Pinus nigra Arn.) provenance trials were established in North West Bulgaria in
1978 to study the hereditary potential of selected offspring of some of the most valuable populations
in Bulgaria. Given the planting interval of 2 × 2 m, 13 provenances are assessed through
three performance indicators including survival rate, quality of stems and general health status. At
the age of 36, the average survival rate of the plantation is 68 %, varying between 38 % and 92 %
for the different plots, without specific linkage to the altitude of origin. The impacts of wet snowfalls
have played a primary negative role on the status of the plantation. Competition has also been an
important factor for the survival rates as expected, with the most significant losses endured during
the early life of the plantation. The field data reveals that there are no definite evidences on the
influence of the provenance on mortality, quality and general health of the stands. Thus, the considerations
on the provenance selection in afforestation practices may not have such a significant
role and visible effect within the established plantations. A possible reason for this is that nature
conditions of the specific site, although outside the natural range of distribution of Black pine, are
relatively favourable but not within the range limits for its survival.

Vasiliy T. Yarmishko

Komarov Botanical Institute, 2 Prof. Popova str., St. Petersburg, 193376, Russia.
E-mail: vasiliyarmishko@yandex.ru

The paper presents results of a study on the radial growth of Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.)
in lichen-green moss pine forests of III–IV age class in natural conditions and in varied environment
influenced by air pollution in the European North of Russia. We found that the growth of
pine in young age depends more on intrapopulation interactions than on climatic factors, which
is confirmed by the data on dynamics of radial growth of overripe pines. It is observed that while
radial increment of pine has natural fluctuations, its dynamics changes significantly induced by
atmospheric pollutants. The significant negative correlation between radial growth of pine and
volume of pollutants emitted by ‘Severonickel’ smelter is determined.