Oļģerts Aleksāns

Hydrogeological Modelling for the Development of Raised Bog Conservation and Restoration Projects

Hydrogeological modelling was carried out within the framework of the LIFE project “LIFE Restore – Management and sustainable use of degraded bogs in Latvia” (project No. LIFE14 CCM / LV / 001103). A stabilizing hydrological regime is one of the important preconditions for successful restoration of degraded bogs. Many practices of regeneration of degraded bogs are known in the world, and most of them relate to the exchange, stabilization or recovery of hydrological regime. It is very common to rebuild, block or eliminate land drainage systems, land elevation planning and building of terraces, as well as many other methods. Most of these techniques are aimed at mitigating the impact of drainage of the bog in order to provide a favourable hydrological environment for the restoration of raised bogs vegetation. Hydrogeological modelling is an important tool that greatly facilitates the development of hydrological regime restoration and stabilization projects for degraded high bogs. Hydrogeological modelling was carried out applying the data provided by hydrogeological model of Latvia LAMO4. Development of the model was supported by the Latvian State Research Program EVIDEnT.