Site Mapping to Inventory Accounting: Establishing Pre‑Restoration Baselines for Peatlands in The Netherlands and Belgium

Peatland restoration is crucial to enhance climate mitigation potential and it’s important to have precise baseline scenario to analyze effectiveness of restoration efforts. This study develops a robust baseline scenario for peatlands undergoing restoration in the Netherlands and Belgium with a focus on the eco-hydrological and GHG emissions. Baseline conditions were mapped using detailed vegetation surveys, satellite data and water table depth (WTD) measurements. GHG emissions (CO₂ and CH₄) were estimated using the Greenhouse Gas Emission Site Types (GEST) framework, which links vegetation and hydrology classes to emission factors and enables systematic upscaling from site observations to regional inventories. To evaluate reliability, GEST derived estimates were compared with independent eddy covariance measurements. Results indicate that accurate mapping of vegetation hydrology strongly influences baseline emissions estimates and that GEST captures overall emission patterns while reflecting site‑specific variability. Follow up restoration scenarios and their regional scale implications are planned as a next step.