Inventor : Dr Hamidreza Rahimi , Cambridge Centre for Land Regeneration
Drained peatlands are one of the largest sources of land-use greenhouse gas emissions in the UK, releasing around eleven million tonnes of CO₂ every year. The key control on these emissions is water table depth: when peat is drained and the water table drops, peat oxidises and releases carbon; when water levels are raised, emissions can be significantly reduced. Despite this well-established science, managing water levels effectively on peat soils remains extremely challenging in practice.
At present, water table monitoring relies mainly on manual dipwells, which are time-consuming, expensive, and provide only point measurements. Farmers and land managers often need to decide how to manage large, heterogeneous fields using information from just one or two locations. Earth observation products exist, but their spatial resolution is too coarse to support field-scale decision making. As a result, Internal Drainage Boards and environmental agencies are forced to manage water using slow feedback loops, often relying on energy-intensive pumping, while farmers lack timely and reliable information to support rewetting or climate-smart management.
PeatWaterWise is being developed to address this gap. The project uses satellite data, combined with field measurements and meteorological information, to estimate water table depth at high spatial resolution. The inventor has developed new modelling approaches that allow water table depth to be mapped at a scale relevant to individual fields and management units, and to deliver these results through an accessible web-based platform. This makes it possible to understand when and where water levels are too low, how they change over time, and how they relate to greenhouse gas emissions.
A central part of PeatWaterWise is close collaboration with farmers, Internal Drainage Boards, and environmental agencies. Ground-truth data collected with farmers is essential for model validation, while engagement with agencies ensures that the outputs are credible, policy-relevant, and aligned with regulatory and carbon-accounting needs. Without this two-way exchange between science and practice, even the most advanced technical tools cannot deliver real climate or environmental benefits.
Peat landscapes, such as those in the Fens around Cambridge, occur across the world, including in the Netherlands, Scandinavia, Canada, Philippines, the Congo and central China, as well as in other parts of the U.K. (mainly Cumbria and the Cairngorms).
While the initial focus is on peatlands, the model can also be used on other land types, and is particularly useful for rice paddies, which are another environment where water levels are carefully controlled. The advantages for farmers include government subsidies if they maintain low emissions rates, as well as improved crop yields from controlled water levels.