Data description

Peat map of the forest land

Last changed: 11 October 2024

Peat map of the forest land contains data on the distribution of mineral soils, peatlands and water. The peat map consists of two products, a classified map and a continuous map. The continuous peat map shows the thickness of the organic layer (6–88 cm). The classified map shows mineral soil, ≥ 30 cm peat depth, ≥ 40 cm peat depth, ≥ 50 cm peat depth, and water.

Previous maps have underestimated the proportion of peatlands in Sweden. The topographic map's wetlands identify about 50% of peatlands, while the soil map identifies about 70% of peatlands. The classified peat map identifies about 80% of peatlands.

The peatland map can facilitate the identification of suitable sites for wetland restoration and be used in forestry planning, including off-road driving, as peatlands are often softer and more susceptible to driving damage than mineral soils.

The peat map is based on nearly 5 500 measurements of the thickness of the organic layer measured in the national soil inventory conducted by SLU on behalf of the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency, as well as SLU's soil moisture maps, which in turn are based on geodata from SGU, SMHI and Lantmäteriet, for example high-resolution elevation data (LIDAR scanning).

The basic format is raster data with a resolution of 2×2 metres in the SWEREF99TM projection.

Download data

Go to data source Creator

Contact

Anneli Ågren

Metadata

Publisher Department of Forest Ecology and Management
Funding agency Among others, the Swedish Forest Agency, Formas and the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency.
Keywords Maps, peat, mineral soil, peat depth, soil, forest planning, organic layer, geodata
Data citation

When publishing, the source must be stated: Peat map, Department of Forest Ecology and Management, SLU or in English Source: Peatmap, Dept. of Forest Ecology and Management, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences.

For scientific citations:

Ågren, A. M., Hasselquist, E. M., Stendahl, J., Nilsson, M. B., and Paul, S. S. (2022) Delineating the distribution of mineral and peat soils at the landscape scale in northern boreal regions, SOIL, 8, 1-17, https://doi.org/10.5194/soil-8-733-2022.
Frequency of update Irregularly
Limitations with regard to usage

The continuous peat map should only be used to illustrate the horizontal distribution of peat as the uncertainties in peat depth are large (± 19 cm).

The map (both products) is produced for the whole landscape, but since it is trained on data from forest land, the results are not quality assessed for other types of land.
Data access service REST, WMS
Subject area
  • Soil properties and soil chemistry
Habitat type
  • Forest
  • Wetlands
Swedish environmental objectives
  • Reduced climate impact
  • Sustainable forests
  • Thriving wetlands
Related datasets

Swedish Forest Soil Inventory
SLU Soil moisture maps
Related tools and applications

The maps are available in National Forest Data Lab’s map portal and in the Swedish Forest Agency map service and their mobile web app. All in Swedish. For the services from the Swedish Forest Agency, select " Val av karta", " Skoglig grunddata - mark" and finally " Torvkarta".