Blanket bog degradation in river catchments in the West of Ireland

The feasibility of using aerial photography to assess the severity and extent of peatland degradation in river catchments was examined in the Connemara region of County Galway and South County Mayo (Ireland). The degraded areas identified on photos were mapped with a geographic information system. Field surveys were used to validate interpretations of aerial photographs. Discrimination between degraded and undegraded peatland on aerial photographs was best in upland areas (i.e. areas above 150 m). Blanket bog degradation appeared to be a geographically widespread phenomenon in the West of Ireland. About 70 percent of the field plots were seriously to very seriously degraded. The average percentage of bare peat ranges from less than or equal to 5 to 57 percent and the maximum vegetation height ranges from 35 to 11 cm for healthy and very seriously degraded plots, respectively.