Natural England releases first full map of UK peat 

An endangered ecological feature of growing importance, England’s peaty soils have been comprehensively surveyed by an innovative government project.

For environmental monitoring professionals and soil analysts, the recent release of the England Peat Map by Natural England represents a game-changing advancement in the assessment, management, and restoration of peatlands.  

Developed through the Natural Capital and Ecosystem Assessment (NCEA) programme and launched in May 2025, this interactive, open-access mapping tool offers the most comprehensive national dataset to date on the extent, depth, condition, and vegetation cover of England’s peat and peaty soils.

This high-resolution resource, built on over 300,000 field survey data points and enhanced with AI-driven analysis, LiDAR data, and satellite imagery, empowers professionals across sectors, from conservation and land management to water and emissions monitoring, to make precise, informed decisions about this critical carbon-rich landscape.

Why peatlands matter for monitoring professionals 

Peatlands cover only around 8.5% of England’s land area, but they punch far above their weight in ecological importance. They are:

• England’s largest terrestrial carbon store, playing a major role in national carbon budgets.
• A critical filter for drinking water, particularly in upland catchments.
• Natural regulators of flood risk, as well as biodiversity hotspots hosting rare species.
• A vital concern for soil monitoring, especially in lowland agricultural areas where drained peat contributes to major greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and soil degradation.

However, the new map reveals that nearly 80% of England’s peatlands are degraded, covered with vegetation more typical of drier soils, such as heather and grassland – or even bare, compacted peat.  

Only 1% of mapped areas support Sphagnum mosses, the wetland vegetation crucial for natural peat formation.

This detailed landscape-scale view is essential for monitoring practitioners and policy makers seeking to assess GHG emissions, track soil quality, understand vegetation dynamics, and model hydrological risk.

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What the England Peat Map offers

1. Spatial data for soil and water quality monitoring

The England Peat Map offers downloadable GIS layers that depict:

• Peat and peaty soil extent and depth (including >0 cm classifications).
• Vegetation types, indicating degradation or recovery states.
• Drainage features, including artificial grips, gullies, and erosion channels.
• Bare peat exposure, a proxy for vulnerability to erosion and emissions.

These data are especially useful for instrument users conducting ground-truthing, validating remote sensing outputs, or deploying in situ sensors for water quality, soil moisture, or GHG fluxes.

2. AI-enhanced precision and national consistency

Using machine learning and deep learning, the map achieves:

• 95% accuracy in predicting the extent of peaty soils.
• 94% accuracy in classifying vegetation cover.
• Consistent modelling across England's varied upland and lowland peat systems.

The map’s national coverage is particularly valuable for projects requiring baseline data for long-term trend analysis, spatial comparisons, or impact assessments linked to agriculture, forestry, or infrastructure.

3. Practical decision-making support

For regulators, landowners, and catchment management teams, the map can inform:

• Targeted peatland restoration, such as drain blocking or re-wetting.
• Soil health monitoring strategies in farmed lowland peats like the Fens.
• Flood risk mapping in upland peat basins.
• Carbon accounting under Defra and UK ETS methodologies.

It also supports DEFRA’s broader policy goals, including freshwater improvement, nature recovery, and emissions reduction.

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Implications for soil monitoring professionals

The degradation of lowland peat soils under intensive agriculture represents a specific challenge.  

These areas contribute the lion’s share of England’s peatland-derived GHG emissions. Yet they are also among the hardest to map due to centuries of cultivation and drainage.  

The England Peat Map makes substantial progress in these zones but also highlights the need for enhanced site-level monitoring.

Professionals deploying soil probes, gas flux chambers, or conductivity and compaction meters now have a robust spatial framework for prioritising where to monitor, what baselines to use, and how to link their data with regional land-use patterns.

Instruments used for soil nutrient testing, especially in carbon farming or regenerative agriculture initiatives, will benefit from this new ability to align field data with accurate peatland maps and degradation indicators.

Integrating the England Peat Map into your workflow

The dataset and technical documentation are available via:

• Natural England’s Open Data Geoportal
• Defra’s Data Services Platform (DSP)
• Science Search and code repositories for model transparency

For users in instrumentation-heavy roles, the User Guide and metadata layers include guidance on confidence intervals and how best to combine the map with ground-based measurements.  

Whether validating carbon sequestration claims or informing flood resilience schemes, this tool offers a robust backbone for evidence-based environmental management.

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How will the England Peat Map be used?

As restoration funding scales up, including a £400 million allocation for nature recovery, the Peat Map will serve as a critical resource for ensuring this investment targets the most degraded sites with the greatest potential return in terms of carbon storage, water filtration, and biodiversity.

Future updates are expected to improve lowland mapping resolution, and to integrate real-time data from emerging technologies like peat surface motion cameras and InSAR monitoring.

For environmental monitoring professionals, this is more than a map: it’s a multi-layered diagnostic instrument for the landscape itself.  

Whether you are tracking changes in peatland condition, designing a new monitoring network, or assessing restoration impacts, the England Peat Map provides the strategic clarity the sector has long needed.

Access the map and resources here.

Jed Thomas