Monitoring of vegetation cover of rewetted peatlands in Moscow Oblast

Abstract

Abandoned drained peatlands pose the greatest danger in terms of peat fires. This is especially true of abandoned, unrestored peat milling fields, the maximum areas of which are located in Moscow Oblast. The most effective way to reduce the fire hazard and improve the ecological condition of such lands in the absence of economic reasons for their use is rewetting and peatland restoration. It is necessary to prioritize objects for rewetting and to monitor the effectiveness of measures taken. Such objects can be of considerable size, difficult to pass and not amenable to ground mapping. Fires and rewetting contribute to rapid changes in vegetation cover. Their monitoring requires remote sensing data and, above all, multispectral satellite data. The large number of objects, their spatial distribution and the need for multi-year observations require a combination of data from different satellites. We present the experience of monitoring more than 73 thousand hectares of peatlands in Moscow Oblast rewetted in 2010–2013 after the fires of 2010. Current results show a reduction in the areas of open peat and dry grass vegetation, insignificant changes in the areas occupied by coniferous trees and progressive expansion of the area occupied by deciduous trees and shrubs, as well as an increase of hydrophilic communities and open water after rewetting and subsequent maintenance of the area. The developed and tested methodology makes it possible to assess the effectiveness of peatland rewetting to reduce the risk of peat fires, as well as to identify areas requiring additional measures. The proposed algorithm ensures reliable allocation in semi-automatic mode of 6 classes of vegetation/land cover, different in fire hazard and basic environmental characteristics that determine the fluxes of greenhouse gases, biodiversity and other ecosystem functions.