Authors:
Cosima Tegetmeyer, Alexandra Barthelmes, Mette Risager and Hans Joosten
Book:
Proceedings of the 15th International Peat Congress
Venue:
Kuching
Keywords:
drained-peatland, ghg, gis, greenhouse-gases, peatland-mapping
Documentfile:
ipc16p91a159tegetmeyer.barthelmes.etal_.pdf
Summary:
The Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from drained peatland, especially in peatlandrich countries (e.g. Iceland, Finland, the Baltics, Indonesia and Mongolia) can amount to a substantial proportion of the total annual emission reported to the UNFCCC. Thus, the elaboration of area data that is in line with IPCC requirements is key. For this, it is necessary to include all peatlands and organic soils that have been drained (for any reason), regardless of whether the active land use has already ceased. The following need to be known: 1) the total peatland or organic soil area, 2) the extent of drainage (any ditches), 3) the extent of land use categories Forest Land, Cropland, Grassland and Peat Extraction. We use the example of Northern Jutland (Denmark) to illustrate redundant shortcomings that hamper the assessment of appropriate area data according to IPCC: a lack of comprehensive peatland or organic soil..