Habib Wahaj, Connolly John
Discipline of Geography, School of Natural Sciences, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin 2, Ireland.
Reg Environ Change. 2023;23(4):124. doi: 10.1007/s10113-023-02116-0. Epub 2023 Sep 20.
Over the centuries, anthropogenic pressure has severely impacted peatlands on the European continent. Peatlands cover ~ 21% (1.46 Mha) of Ireland's land surface, but 85% have been degraded due to management activities (land use). Ireland needs to meet its 2030 climate energy framework targets related to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from land use, land use change and forestry, including wetlands. Despite Ireland's voluntary decision to include peatlands in this system in 2020, information on land use activities and associated GHG emissions from peatlands is lacking. This study strives to fill this information gap by using Landsat (5, 8) data with Google Earth Engine and machine learning to examine and quantify land use on Irish peatlands across three time periods: 1990, 2005 and 2019. Four peatland land use classes were mapped and assessed: industrial peat extraction, forestry, grassland and residual peatland. The overall accuracy of the classification was 86% and 85% for the 2005 and 2019 maps, respectively. The accuracy of the 1990 dataset could not be assessed due to the unavailability of high-resolution reference data. The results indicate that extensive management activities have taken place in peatlands over the past three decades, which may have negative impacts on its ecological integrity and the many ecosystem services provided. By utilising cloud computing, temporal mosaicking and Landsat data, this study developed a robust methodology that overcomes cloud contamination and produces the first peatland land use maps of Ireland with wall-to-wall coverage. This has the potential for regional and global applications, providing maps that could help understand unsustainable management practices on peatlands and the impact on GHG emissions.
几个世纪以来，人为压力对欧洲大陆的泥炭地造成了严重影响。泥炭地覆盖了爱尔兰约21%（146万公顷）的陆地面积，但其中85%因管理活动（土地利用）而退化。爱尔兰需要实现其2030年气候能源框架目标，该目标涉及土地利用、土地利用变化和林业（包括湿地）产生的温室气体排放。尽管爱尔兰在2020年自愿决定将泥炭地纳入该体系，但缺乏关于泥炭地土地利用活动及相关温室气体排放的信息。本研究旨在通过使用搭载于谷歌地球引擎的陆地卫星（5号和8号）数据以及机器学习技术，填补这一信息空白，以考察和量化爱尔兰泥炭地在1990年、2005年和2019年这三个时间段的土地利用情况。绘制并评估了四种泥炭地土地利用类型：工业泥炭开采、林业、草地和残余泥炭地。2005年和2019年地图分类的总体准确率分别为86%和85%。由于缺乏高分辨率参考数据，无法评估1990年数据集的准确率。结果表明，在过去三十年里，泥炭地发生了广泛的管理活动，这可能对其生态完整性和所提供的众多生态系统服务产生负面影响。通过利用云计算、时间镶嵌和陆地卫星数据，本研究开发了一种强大的方法，克服了云层干扰，并制作出了爱尔兰首张全区域覆盖的泥炭地土地利用地图。这具有在区域和全球应用的潜力，所提供的地图有助于了解泥炭地不可持续的管理做法及其对温室气体排放的影响。
