Addressing Peatland Rewetting in Russian Federation Climate Reporting

Andrey Sirin, Maria Medvedeva, Vladimir Korotkov, Victor Itkin, Tatiana Minayeva, Danil Ilyasov, Gennady Suvorov and Hans Joosten
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Andrey Sirin: Institute of Forest Science, Russian Academy of Sciences, Uspenskoye, 143030 Moscow Region, Russia
Maria Medvedeva: Institute of Forest Science, Russian Academy of Sciences, Uspenskoye, 143030 Moscow Region, Russia
Vladimir Korotkov: Yu. A. Izrael Institute of Global Climate and Ecology, 20B Glebovskaya Str., 107258 Moscow, Russia
Victor Itkin: Department of Applied Mathematics and Computer Modelling, National University of Oil and Gas «Gubkin University», 65 Leninsky Prospekt, 119991 Moscow, Russia
Tatiana Minayeva: Institute of Forest Science, Russian Academy of Sciences, Uspenskoye, 143030 Moscow Region, Russia
Danil Ilyasov: Institute of Forest Science, Russian Academy of Sciences, Uspenskoye, 143030 Moscow Region, Russia
Gennady Suvorov: Institute of Forest Science, Russian Academy of Sciences, Uspenskoye, 143030 Moscow Region, Russia
Hans Joosten: Institute of Botany and Landscape Ecology, Greifswald University, Partner in the Greifswald Mire Centre, Soldmannstrasse 15, D-17487 Greifswald, Germany

Land, 2021, vol. 10, issue 11, 1-17

Abstract: Rewetting is the most effective way to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from drained peatlands and must significantly contribute to the implementation of the Paris Agreement on Climate within the land sector. In 2010–2013, more than 73 thousand hectares of fire-prone peatlands were rewetted in the Moscow Region (the hitherto largest rewetting program in the Northern Hemisphere). As the Russian Federation has no national accounting of rewetted areas yet, this paper presents an approach to detect them based on multispectral satellite data verified by ground truthing. We propose that effectively rewetted areas should minimally include areas with wet grasslands and those covered with water (cf. the IPCC categories “rewetted organic soils” and “flooded lands”). In 2020, these lands amounted in Moscow Region to more than 5.3 and 3.6 thousand hectares, respectively. Assuming that most rewetted areas were former peat extraction sites and using IPCC default GHG emission factors, an overall GHG emission reduction of over 36,000 tCO 2 -eq year −1 was calculated. We furthermore considered the uncertainty of calculations. With the example of a 1535 ha large rewetted peatland, we illustrate the estimation of GHG emission reductions for the period up to 2050. The approach presented can be used to estimate GHG emission reductions by peatland rewetting on the national, regional, and object level.

Keywords: climate change; mitigation; multispectral satellite imagery; peatland restoration; Paris Agreement; peat extraction; rewetting (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q15 Q2 Q24 Q28 Q5 R14 R52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jlands:v:10:y:2021:i:11:p:1200-:d:673393

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