Site Assessment Map

What is the Site Assessment Map?

Before any fieldwork begins, a map of the site must be produced to form a basis for the fieldwork. This site assessment map will, as minimum, contain the gross project area and the location and extent of the eligible peatland areas to be restored contained within (the net project area). The net project area will be the area within the project for which carbon credits will be calculated.

The estimation of the net project area will be based upon categories of the eligible peatland type and condition.

Eligible Categories

Ineligible Categories

Flowchart for Producing a Site Assessment Map

Example: Estimating the Net Project Area

Consider that the gross project area is given by the figure below which we know contains a lot of blanket bog.

In this example, we use open-source datasets to estimate the extent of the blanket bog and the deep peat areas within the gross project area.

We can then estimate the net project area through the intersection of the deep peat and blanket bog extents.

Estimating Areas of High Water Table Depth

Having identified the net project area, we would like to know whether the site has a good potential for restoration, such that it it is behaving as if it has a high water table depth (WTD). Such areas appear to be collapsing at a high, sustained rate in the satellite observations and this can provide an estimate of restoration potential. Terra Motion can provide this information using our Carbon Potential Map product, an example of which is shown below.

This example shows an area that has a very good potential for restoration.