The final characteristics of the available marginal land areas (as defined in Table 1) which could be used for miscanthus cultivation without conflicting with government policy or environment protection concerns, and their spatial distribution across China, are shown in Table 4 and Fig. 1. The results indicate that the available marginal land areas for miscanthus production are mainly located in Northwest China with a total area of 17,163.54×104 ha (Table 4). These are predominantly composed of
