From the Poplar Plantation to the Structural Component: A Case Study of Silvicultural and Material Constraints on Local Poplar for Timber Housing (Vega de Granada, Spain)
Abstract
Poplar (Populus × euramericana) is grown in the irrigated, short-rotation plantations of the Vega de Granada, southern Spain. Its recent recognition as structural timber (clones MC and Luisa Avanzo, tensile class T10, 2024) is rarely traced back to the forest resource that shapes it. This case study re-reads primary silvicultural, geometric and mechanical data through a single chain, from plantation to structural component, and adds two original, scenario-based estimates of carbon and transport footprint—not a complete life-cycle assessment. A clonal ordering in stiffness measured on standing trees does not survive conversion: on sawn timber the two certified clones differ by 1.3% (8213 against 8319 N/mm2), and the larger in-tree gap is consistent with a substantial contribution from the moisture state of the stem at measurement, rather than from genotype alone. What does propagate is the low density of the resource (374 ± 31 kg/m3 at 12% moisture), which shapes the hybridisation strategy, placing poplar in the low-stress core and Pinus nigra in the outer laminations; and the modest, variable sawing dimensions, which resolve sections by lamination rather than solid timber. Local sourcing yields an estimated transport-stage (A4) difference of 90–99 kg CO2e/m3 over central-European import, and no structural poplar EPD was found in the main European registries consulted at the time of writing. Taken together, the evidence is consistent with silviculture—rotation age, log position and water regime, more than clonal choice—operating as the primary lever of structural design.
Reference
Jaime Vergara-Muñoz; Javier Navarro Mateos; Roser Martínez-Ramos e Iruela; Adelaida Martín Martín; Ignacio de Teresa Fernández-Casas; Miguel Martínez-Monedero. (2026). From the Poplar Plantation to the Structural Component: A Case Study of Silvicultural and Material Constraints on Local Poplar for Timber Housing (Vega de Granada, Spain). Forests. https://doi.org/10.3390/f17101191
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