Rewetting peatlands: Sensor technology and underground radio communication to protect climate and health
In order to achieve the climate protection targets in Germany, it is not only necessary to drastically reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the energy sector, industry and transportation. As important carbon reservoirs, moorland soils must also be protected and drained moors must be rewetted. To ensure that they can still be used for agriculture, scientists from TU Ilmenau and Kompass GmbH, Ilmenau, have joined forces to research and develop a new type of wireless sensor technology and underground radio communication. This should make it possible to monitor both the CO2 emissions of peatlands and the nitrate contamination of groundwater in agricultural soils and to derive efficient measures to protect the environment and health on the basis of the measured values.