Nature restoration stories: Rewetting drained peatland to improve biodiversity
- Nature restoration
What does rewetting mean? Why is this important? And how is SCALGO Live used for successful rewetting? Ea Baden from Ekologigruppen talks about how they plan peatland restoration with SCALGO Live.
Ekologigruppen is a consulting company with strong values based on ecological, social and economic sustainability. The company operates in an interdisciplinary manner and is a driving force in knowledge and method development in green urban planning and nature conservation.
Ea Baden, an environmental scientist and human ecologist, is specialising in nature conservation measures. Among other things, she works a lot with rewetting drained peatland.
"Rewetting is today used as a term for the restoration of wetlands that form peat, or have formed it, and have been drained for the benefit of peat collection, forest production or agriculture", says Ea. "The goal of rewetting is usually to create better conditions for biodiversity or reduce emissions of carbon dioxide."
For example, when rewetting peatlands by raising the groundwater level, the release of greenhouse gasses is slowed down. Raising water levels above the ground by damming, and creating open water surfaces, improves biodiversity in the area. However, on peatlands, damming can also lead to an increase in methane emissions.
"We use SCALGO Live to carefully analyse the topography and find areas where we can achieve a lot of rewetting with just a few small dams."
Ea Baden, Ekologigruppen
![](https://scalgo-web.imgix.net/images/1_2024-01-30-092950_mmdv.png?auto=compress%2Cformat&crop=focalpoint&cs=srgb&fit=crop&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&h=422&q=80&w=750&s=bb4c86a80408da146fc514dcf1e3f8c2 750w, https://scalgo-web.imgix.net/images/1_2024-01-30-092950_mmdv.png?auto=compress%2Cformat&crop=focalpoint&cs=srgb&fit=crop&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&h=563&q=80&w=1000&s=e3428b5850ffd13d0ab647318fc90ede 1000w, https://scalgo-web.imgix.net/images/1_2024-01-30-092950_mmdv.png?auto=compress%2Cformat&crop=focalpoint&cs=srgb&fit=crop&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&h=703&q=80&w=1250&s=a6ef8c4b89181976b509a09bd97f9ca0 1250w, https://scalgo-web.imgix.net/images/1_2024-01-30-092950_mmdv.png?auto=compress%2Cformat&crop=focalpoint&cs=srgb&fit=crop&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&h=844&q=80&w=1500&s=bcca28140938a2569a6c78ced6684758 1500w, https://scalgo-web.imgix.net/images/1_2024-01-30-092950_mmdv.png?auto=compress%2Cformat&crop=focalpoint&cs=srgb&fit=crop&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&h=984&q=80&w=1750&s=ee7646ec2f842b8aa4b8380eac83a18e 1750w)
Figure. Out measuring ditches. To rewet the area, ditches are blocked with local materials creating dams where water rises upstream.
"Bogs that have been drained have trees growing along the ditches. If the ground is rewetted, trees do not grow that well anymore," explains Ea, "and that is how we create open areas that benefit wildlife, such as wading birds. In the wetter environment, the sphagnum moss also grows better. In this way, we improve biodiversity."
How you choose to do the rewetting depends on the goal of the specific project. Here, Ea and her colleagues help develop the most appropriate plan.
Rewetting involves placing small peat dams in the ditches with materials that are available in the area. The usual method is to cut down trees locally, place them in the ditch and fill the ditch with peat.
"This causes the water level to rise upstream from the peat dam."
![](https://scalgo-web.imgix.net/images/2_2024-01-30-093146_zyck.png?auto=compress%2Cformat&crop=focalpoint&cs=srgb&fit=crop&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&h=422&q=80&w=750&s=02ae8f9cc60a22ef7c682dd1329e5b5c 750w, https://scalgo-web.imgix.net/images/2_2024-01-30-093146_zyck.png?auto=compress%2Cformat&crop=focalpoint&cs=srgb&fit=crop&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&h=563&q=80&w=1000&s=0963f7a721bb24e61c90dfad2acf885b 1000w, https://scalgo-web.imgix.net/images/2_2024-01-30-093146_zyck.png?auto=compress%2Cformat&crop=focalpoint&cs=srgb&fit=crop&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&h=703&q=80&w=1250&s=6986e9f6d8faf5dea78c916c87ed8ad5 1250w, https://scalgo-web.imgix.net/images/2_2024-01-30-093146_zyck.png?auto=compress%2Cformat&crop=focalpoint&cs=srgb&fit=crop&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&h=844&q=80&w=1500&s=085c9698b963949abd5aa04496ba19a7 1500w, https://scalgo-web.imgix.net/images/2_2024-01-30-093146_zyck.png?auto=compress%2Cformat&crop=focalpoint&cs=srgb&fit=crop&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&h=984&q=80&w=1750&s=c787ea35455f865ba5f9672b6321057b 1750w)
Figure 3. Placing the dams in SCALGO Live. The small black lines are peat dams.
When placing peat dams, topography is very important. By strategically placing the dams, Ea and her colleagues aim at creating as much rewetting as possible.
"We use SCALGO Live to carefully analyse the topography and find areas where we can achieve a lot of rewetting with just a few dams. We place the dams in SCALGO Live to show how the project should be carried out", Ea describes the work process. "When we place dams, we also think about costs - we want to create a lot of rewetting with as few dams as possible".
![](https://scalgo-web.imgix.net/images/3_2024-01-30-093325_erqd.png?auto=compress%2Cformat&crop=focalpoint&cs=srgb&fit=crop&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&h=422&q=80&w=750&s=46b03448600c8b69f82ddcc89d4370b6 750w, https://scalgo-web.imgix.net/images/3_2024-01-30-093325_erqd.png?auto=compress%2Cformat&crop=focalpoint&cs=srgb&fit=crop&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&h=563&q=80&w=1000&s=c7af9a703268647176989ecf1f4ae620 1000w, https://scalgo-web.imgix.net/images/3_2024-01-30-093325_erqd.png?auto=compress%2Cformat&crop=focalpoint&cs=srgb&fit=crop&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&h=703&q=80&w=1250&s=a0583b8bbb6b89dc1e6ed4263e707060 1250w, https://scalgo-web.imgix.net/images/3_2024-01-30-093325_erqd.png?auto=compress%2Cformat&crop=focalpoint&cs=srgb&fit=crop&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&h=844&q=80&w=1500&s=043ba3460a29ff1b538a0d57644941af 1500w, https://scalgo-web.imgix.net/images/3_2024-01-30-093325_erqd.png?auto=compress%2Cformat&crop=focalpoint&cs=srgb&fit=crop&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&h=984&q=80&w=1750&s=a311beb3cdca90369b32d34098cc8beb 1750w)
Figure 4. The dams are placed after careful analysis of the topography.
In addition to the topography, it is interesting to look at historical maps. It is not always possible to see all the ditches in the elevation model because they may have become overgrown, but in historical maps you can often see the original location of the ditches. Then you can use terrain editing in SCALGO Live to draw the old ditches into the topography and, thereafter, place peat dams.
"What is also interesting in these projects is that you often have the wrong idea of where the water comes from or what it looked like a long time ago, before the area was drained", Ea reasons. "We might think that an area has been a wet bog with no real runoff, but when we look at the area more closely, we realise that there has always been runoff. SCALGO Live helps us understand and explain the history."
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