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Dave O'Leary

and 4 more

Peatlands are becoming recognized as important carbon sequestration centers where, through restoration projects, peatlands may stop being considered as carbon sources and become carbon neutral or possibly carbon negative. Restoration projects require a knowledge of intra-peat variation across these, sometimes, vast areas. The integration of multidimensional geophysical tools, digital elevation models and satellite remote sensing products combined with modern data analytic techniques may provide a rapid means of accessing variations over broad spatial scale. In this study an airborne radiometric survey, being flown nationally over the Republic of Ireland, is shown to be able to delineate potential management zones within an industrial raised peat bog. Radiometric data is particularly suited to peat studies as they are sensitive to water content. Peat, as a mostly organic material, acts as a low signal environment where variations in the signal are linked to intra-peat variation of either depth or water content. This study uses an unsupervised, self-organizing map clustering methodology to group the radiometric signal into three zones interpreted as 1) the edge of the bog where peat layer is thinning and there is influence on the radiometric signal from non-peat soils outside of the bog, 2) the normal peat conditions where depth and saturation appear as a relative constant in the radiometric response and 3) areas where the peat is either thinner, drier, or potentially somewhat mineralised. The addition of other data layers such as elevation, slope and satellite imagery may help better define these zones and a ground geophysical survey is planned to test the results of this study. The definition of such potential management zones could aid any restoration project in the initial stages or act as a baseline study to monitor changes to the peatland during and after a restoration project is complete.