EPA Steering Committee Meeting slides, Dec, 8, 2020

1. www.waterjpi.eu
WATERPEAT
Steering Committee
Meeting
December 8, 2020

2. www.waterjpi.eu
Description of Project
► WaterPeat aims to address knowledge gaps on effective peatland
management by:
• Studying hydrological and geochemical processes in peatland under
different management regimes
• Develop and test methods to reduce nutrient leaching following
peatland drainage
• Develop with stakeholders improved options for land use planning to
reduce downstream environmental impacts and provide guidance for
management practices

3. www.waterjpi.eu
Timeline
Jan Feb Mar Apr May June
Delivery of laboratory units
Agreement with Geography (NUIG)
for collection of intact cores
Delivery and preparation of core
sampling units
Completion of risk assessments/
SOPs; and H&S inductions by BnM
for site staff
---Site flooded ---
Lab/field work prohibited at NUIG from Mar 13 to Jun 29
Writing and submission of review paper (submitted 12.6.20)
Presentation of poster at EGU 2020
Commencement of modelling work using SWAT+
H&S inductions for additional staff from Geography Dept., NUIG
Completion of Research Integrity module (S. Monteverde and O. Callery)
Maintaining social media presence via Twitter

4. www.waterjpi.eu
Timeline
July August Sept Oct Nov
C-19 restrictions continue
Conducted
preliminary
sampling at
Garryduff
Peat column
design and
fabrication
Ground based
geophysics
work
performed
Collected
first set of
peat samples
(16)
Identified
sister-site: All
Saints SAC
Collected
second set of
peat samples
(16)
Installed
standpipe
clusters;
collected water
samples at
several depths at
All Saints

5. www.waterjpi.eu
Work Package 1
Analysis of peatland use impacts on hydrology and water quality
Objective:
• To improve understanding on how peatland hydrology and
water quality change with land use and management practices
• Management practices – restoration/drainage, fertilization,
etc.
Methodology:
Activity Study location
Laboratory component to investigate impacts of
peatland management on intact peat cores
Garryduff Bog, Co. Offaly
Field component investigating impact of bog
rewetting on nutrient release
All Saints Bog, Co. Offaly

6. www.waterjpi.eu
Work Package 1
Analysis of peatland use impacts on hydrology and water quality
Activity Study location
Laboratory component to investigate impacts
peatland management on intact peat cores
Garryduff Bog, Co. Offaly
Research Questions:
How to collect soil cores that are
truly representative of the study
site?
How to collect intact cores?

7. www.waterjpi.eu
Now over to Dave!
► Before any sample collection occurred, we needed a way
to characterize the selected sites.
► Site characterization informed the selection of our
sample locations and this was completed via
remote/ground based geophysics.
Work Package 1
Analysis of peatland use impacts on hydrology and water quality

8. www.waterjpi.eu
Defining peatland zones using self-organising map
clustering on airborne radiometric data and OS digital
elevation model

9. www.waterjpi.eu
Available Data

10. Why Radiometric Data?

11. Why Radiometric Data?

12. Aerial image
Soil Map
Quaternary
Geology
Bedrock
Geology
Site Location and Description
- Former industrial bog
- 9.5 km2
- Quaternary sediments
are classed as “cut over
raised peat”
- Surrounded by alluvium
and glacial till
- Soils are Classed as
“Peat”
- Surrounded by alluvium
and limestone
influenced loamy drifts
- Bedrock is a dark
limestone, however
shale and mudstones are
also present
- Lucan formation

13. Potassium Uranium
Thorium Total Counts
How to simplify things with machine learning

14. Peat Thickness Peat Depth
Core sites and Ground truths

15. Conclusion and Future Work
Tellus Airborne Radiometric data
+
Tellus Airborne Electromagnetic data
+
Sentinel 1 Soil Moisture model
+
Core analysis
+
Ground surveys
=

16. Work Package 1
Analysis of peatland use impacts on hydrology and water quality
Activity Study location
Laboratory component to investigate impacts of
peatland management on intact peat cores
Garryduff Bog, Co. Offaly
Research Questions:
How to collect soil cores that are
truly representative of the study site?
How to collect intact cores?
Activities to address outcomes:
Soil coring locations identified

17. www.waterjpi.eu
Thirty intact peat cores, each ~1 m in length,
were collected from two locations on
October 30th and November 6th using an
Usinger Corer
Work Package 1
Analysis of peatland use impacts on hydrology and water quality
Usinger corer work in
collaboration with
Geography, NUI Galway (Drs
Aaron Potito, Karen Molloy,
and Siubhan Comer)

18. www.waterjpi.eu
1 m-long columns captured at Site
1
Columns of 70 to 80 cm in length were
collected at Site 2. All core samples at this
location contained a thin bottom layer of
marl.
Work Package 1
Analysis of peatland use impacts on hydrology and water quality

19. www.waterjpi.eu
Work Package 1
Analysis of peatland use impacts on hydrology and water quality
Waterproof adhesive
(Bostik Rito Waterstop)
and scrim tape covering
the columns to create
perfect seal
Instrumented columns in the laboratory

20. www.waterjpi.eu
Work Package 1
Analysis of peatland use impacts on hydrology and water quality
Treatments*:
Control
Rainfall only
Water table
(W.T.) rising
W.T. rising +
fertiliser
application –
150 kg P/ha
W.T. rising +
fertiliser
applicaton –
50 kg P/ha
*Replicated at Site 1 and Site 2 cores
W.T. falling

21. www.waterjpi.eu
Work Package 1
Analysis of peatland use impacts on hydrology and water quality
Activity Study location
Laboratory component to investigate impacts
peatland management on intact peat cores
Garryduff Bog, Co. Offaly
Research Questions:
How to collect soil cores that are
truly representative of the study
site?
How to collect intact cores?
Activities to address outcomes:
Soil coring locations identified
Intact cores collected

22. www.waterjpi.eu
Work Package 1
Analysis of peatland use impacts on hydrology and water quality
Activity Study location
Laboratory component to investigate impacts
peatland management on intact peat cores
Garryduff Bog, Co. Offaly
Field component investigating impact of bog
rewetting on nutrient release
All Saints Bog, Co. Offaly
Research Questions:
How to collect soil cores that are
truly representative of the study
site?
How to collect intact cores?
Activities to address outcomes:
Soil coring locations identified
Intact cores collected

23. www.waterjpi.eu
16 Standpipes were placed across the
bare cutover regions of the All-Saints
bog. Stand pipes were clustered by
20cm, 50cm, and 100cm depths.
Work Package 1
Analysis of peatland use impacts on hydrology and water quality

24. www.waterjpi.eu
20 cm depth 50 cm depth 100 cm depth
1.09 mg/L
8.13 mg/L
Interpolated Ammonia Data
November 19th
Work Package 1
Analysis of peatland use impacts on hydrology and water quality

25. www.waterjpi.eu
Work Package 2
Solutions for efficient water management and water quality
control
Objective:
• Assess mitigation options to reduce nutrient, metal, sediment and
carbon losses
• Novel media for soil amendments
• Controlled drainage
• Drainage water treatment
Deliverables:
Literature review on restoration and land management options
Identification of suitable media/management options for drainage
water treatment

26. www.waterjpi.eu
Literature review submitted on
June 11th. Currently listed as
still under review.
Submitted to Ecological
Indicators
Work Package 2
Solutions for efficient water management and water quality
control

27. www.waterjpi.eu
Work Package 3*
Tools for integrated land and water management on peat soils
Objective:
• To develop tools that can be used in peatland planning and
management
• To use data from WP1 and WP2 to assist in modelling of
management options, future climate impacts, etc.
Deliverables:
Visually appealing schematics on peatland processes and mitigation
options
Report on modelling, analysis of extreme events and future climate impacts
Options for efficient monitoring and management
* Will not be led by Irish partners, but we will input data to JPI project leaders (U. Oulu

28. www.waterjpi.eu
Soil Water Assessment Tool (SWAT)
• A continuous time model for the catchment scale, developed to quantify
the impact of land management practices in complex watersheds.
• Over the last ~20 years, SWAT has become one of the most widely used
hydrologic modelling tools.
• SWAT simulates streamflow and pollutant transport across a range of
spatial and temporal scales, environmental conditions, and land
management scenarios.
Work Package 3
Tools for integrated land and water management on peat soils

29. www.waterjpi.eu
• SWAT uses the following to predict long-term impacts of management:
weather and precipitation
overland flow
percolation and soil
land use
topographic: slope and elevation (DEM)
vegetation growth and irrigation
groundwater flow
nutrient loading
• It uses and combines this information and integrates environmental
processes with the relevant pollutants.
• It helps assess the efficiency of BMPs and alternative management policies.
Work Package 3
Tools for integrated land and water management on peat soils

30. www.waterjpi.eu
weather and precipitation
overland flow
percolation and soil
land use
topographic
vegetation and irrigation
groundwater flow
nutrient loading
SWAT Input Model Run SWAT Output
Runoff
Soil Erosion
*Water Quality
(for watersheds and sub-
catchments)
Work Package 3
Tools for integrated land and water management on peat soils

31. www.waterjpi.eu
SWAT applied to WaterPeat (Garryduff and All
Saints)
Construct Model Using
Available Data
Model Training:
Calibration and Validation against
observed site data
Change of input parameters – e.g.
vegetation cover, fertilizer
application, increased rainfall
inensity
Work Package 3
Tools for integrated land and water management on peat soils
Remote sensing:
Site heterogeneity
Soil sampling:
To understand implications of
site heterogeneity on
management

32. www.waterjpi.eu
Work Package 4
Stakeholder involvement and communication for best
management
Objective:
• To engage in dialogue with stakeholders
• To inform stakeholders about project
results
• To provide user-friendly outputs
Deliverables:
Newsletter, policy briefs, etc.

33. www.waterjpi.eu
Cumulative number of impressions (times people
saw a tweet): 28059 (10164 in this reporting
period)
Cumulative engagements (times people interacted
with a tweet): 1765 (836 in this reporting period)
Tweet with most
engagements
Work Package 4
Stakeholder involvement and communication for best
management

34. www.waterjpi.eu
Project timeline
Tellus data for soil core selection
Laboratory analysis using cores to investigate various
scenarios (fertiliser applications, rising/falling water
table on soil chemistry and water quality)
Modelling
Data from lab studies to predict N and P
retention/release
Validation
Site measurements to validate laboratory
measurements
Complete
Commencing
Feb 2020
Commencing
December
2020
SWAT
analysis
commencing

35. www.waterjpi.eu
Project timeline
Month Activity
Feb Collect soil cores from site
Mar Commence laboratory analysis on soil cores – various
water control scenarios investigated
May Present poster at EGU20 Peatlands conference in Vienna
June Literature review complete and paper submitted
June Present at wetlands conference at NUI Galway
(Aug) JPI Stakeholder Group meeting
Nov All Saints field water quality sampling commenced
Nov –
end
Field sampling and lab experiments
July
Intact cores collected with Geography (NUIG)
Cancelle
d
Dec 1st
Dec

36. www.waterjpi.eu
Project timeline (as displayed in July S.C.M.)
December 2020 = Month 21 as per Gantt chart
Grey boxes – extension request at July meeting

37. www.waterjpi.eu
Project timeline (revised to include analysis at All
Saints)
December 2020 = Month 21 as per Gantt chart
Grey boxes – further extension request
All Saints
sampling

38. www.waterjpi.eu
Outputs
Monteverde, S., Healy, M.G., Callery, O. 2020. Developing land use
strategies in landscapes with changing priority, the case of peatland
management. Session HS10.6. EGU General Assembly 2020.
https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-22648 (online presentation).
O’Leary, D., Monteverde, S., Callery, O., Healy, M.G., Brown, C., Daly, E. 2020.
Defining peatland zones using self-organising map clustering on airborne
radiometric data and OS digital elevation model. Irish Quaternary
Association Annual Symposium. Nov 27, 2020 (online)
O’Leary, D., Healy, M.G., Callery, O., Brown, C., Daly, E. 2020. Defining
potential peatland management zones using unsupervised self-organising
map clustering on airborne radiometric data. Session #B025-07. AGU Fall
Meeting, 1 – 17, December. (Online.)
Submitted paper:
Monteverde, S., Healy, M.G., O’Leary, D., Daly, E., Callery, O. Developing
land use strategies within landscapes of changing priority, the case of
peatland management. Submitted to Ecological Indicators (June, 2020).

39. www.waterjpi.eu
Project timeline (revised to include analysis at All
Saints)
Question for EPA/Steering Committee:
Due to COVID shutdown, and consequent impacted timelines across all
partners’ projects, the WaterPeat team (Finland, Norway, Ireland) will apply
to Water JPI for a no-cost (cost?) extension.
In Ireland, we would need a 4-month extension to complete our work.
In principle, if this is sanctioned by Water JPI, is the EPA happy to support
this?