Hossein Hashemi
Researcher
Estimating peatland carbon sequestration in southern Sweden using InSAR
Author
Summary, in English
Peatlands are often considered carbon pools as they are critical components of the carbon cycle process. Evaluating conditions of the peatlands is important for climate change impact studies as there is a close correlation between the peat accumulation, carbon sequestration, and water depth of the peatlands. Hence, accurate and continuous monitoring of their conditions is crucial to evaluate carbon cycling in peat-rich countries like Sweden. Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) technique is an accurate and economical method for continuous monitoring of earth surface displacement, especially in areas where field data are not available. In this study, the feasibility of the InSAR technique for evaluating peatland surface deformation in southern Sweden was examined. The method was validated by comparing the time series of surface displacement with corresponding permanent ground positioning data extracted from a few stations. We detected consistent uplift in the peatland surfaces during the study period from mid-2017 to late 2020. The observed uplifts generally indicate good conditions for carbon sequestration. The uplift data derived from InSAR were used to calculate the volumetric change of the studied peatlands. The carbon cycle rate (i.e., carbon absorption) was estimated by combining the volumetric data with dry bulk density and carbon content. The results showed that peatland uplift in the study area (i.e., 80% of whole peatland covered area) represented more than 28,000 ton of carbon absorption per year. The study also showed that InSAR has excellent accuracy and effectiveness to continuously monitor the carbon sequestration of large areas of peatland.
Department/s
- MECW: The Middle East in the Contemporary World
- Division of Water Resources Engineering
- Centre for Advanced Middle Eastern Studies (CMES)
Publishing year
2022
Language
English
Links
Document type
Conference paper: abstract
Topic
- Social Sciences Interdisciplinary
Conference name
NORDIC HYDROLOGICAL CONFERENCE
Conference date
2022-08-15 - 2022-08-18
Conference place
Tallinn, Estonia
Status
Inpress