Geospatial technology for mapping and monitoring peatlands

Although peatlands cover only 3% of the land area, they contain 33% of all terrestrial soil organic carbon stocks. In addition, they support a broad range of Nature’s Contributions to People (NCPs) such as water quality and biodiversity. Anthropogenic activity, particularly drainage and land use change has degraded many peatlands, impacting NCPs. This has long been the case in Ireland and across Europe and more recently in tropical regions.

This degradation leads to reductions in carbon (C) storage and increases in greenhouse gas emission, reduced water quality and biodiversity. It can lead to fire, dissolved and particulate matter emissions and, heavy metal mobilisation with consequences for human health and the environment.

The extent and condition of peatlands nationally, regionally and globally is not clear. In Ireland, peatlands have undergone extensive degradation through land use change. Recent studies estimate that peat soil extent, including shallow peat soil, is 1.66 million hectares with about 2 billion tonnes of Carbon stored in the soil. Much of this soil is located under a variety of different land cover types and in different drainage states. This leads to some uncertainty regarding greenhouse gas emissions.

This presentation focuses on the geospatial techniques that we have used to refine and quantify the spatial extent and condition of peat soils in Ireland and offer methods that could be useful for refining higher tier methods, facilitating widescale monitoring, assessing changes in emissions post land use change and accounting for land use change related to infrastructure.