Modeling long-time peatland subsidence in a Venice Lagoon catchment
F. Zanello, P. Teatini, M. Putti, G. Gambolati
Dept. Mathematical Methods and Models for Scientific
Applications, University of Padova, Padova, Italy
ABSTRACT
Peatlands respond to hydrologic precipitation-evapotranspiration cycles with
reversible soil surface displacements induced by moisture content changes in both
the vadose and saturated zones. Elastic surface movements superimpose to
irrecoverable long-term subsidence
induced by organic matter bioxidation. A two-step modeling approach
aimed at quantifing the two components of peatland different surface movement and
its application to displacement data collected in the Zennare
Basin, Italy are presented. An empirical relationship proposed by Stephens et al. (1984)
is calibrated on the estimated irreversible settlement and
then used to investigate the expected
evolution of the peat thickness in the study area over the present century.
