The feasibility and environmental effects of rice cultivation on peat soils in northwestern Europe.

By hugo.bosland , 21 November, 2025
    Organizational Context
    Name
    Hugo Bosland
    Chairgroup
    PPS
    Graduate school
    PE&RC
    Start date of project
    Abstract

    Rewetting peat soils is regarded as a sustainable alternative for the current land use of peatland areas in northwestern Europe. Rice is one of the few food crops that grows on flooded fields and may be a climate adaptation and mitigation option for peatland areas. This project aims to identify rice cultivars that are suited to northwestern European conditions, cold resistant and productive. Potential cultivation areas are identified based on climate and hydrology. Different management options regarding water, nutrients, etc. are assessed. The effect of rice on methane, CO2 and N2O emissions is studied, as well as management options to limit those emissions. A combination of field measurements and modelling is used to quantify the effect of rice cultivation on the hydrological system on different scales. This is important as the frequency of drought and extreme precipitation events increases. Lastly socio-economic transforming pathways are studied, by interviews with farmers.

    Role supervisor

    Assisting with experimental setup, keeping an eye on feasibility, giving feedback on written texts, etc.

    Who's collecting the data

    Hugo Bosland, and partly Martijne Kannekens. There will also data be used from the KNMI and NHI.

    Who's analysing the data

    Hugo Bosland. Parts will be done by Pepijn van Oort (rice phenology) and Perry de Louw (groundwater modelling).

    Location short term storage

    All data will be stored on my local harddisk in a folder called Thesis.

    Within this Thesis folder, I'll create per chapter the folders: DataModelPaper and Scripts. The Data folder has two sub-folders called: Raw and Processed.

    Folder contents:

    • Data - Raw sub-folder: Contains all raw data and meta-data (a description of your data).
    • Data - Processed sub-folder: Contains all processed data. 
    • Model folder: Complete listing of the model and the model results & analysis.
    • Paper folder: Text of a chapter / paper.  
    • Scripts folder: Contains all scripts used.
    Backup procedure

    The complete content of my local Thesis folder will be stored on my YoDa-drive. 

    During periods I'm abroad, I'll backup the complete content of my local Thesis folder to a Dropbox or MS-Onedrive Thesis folder and share the contents with my supervisor(s). 

    Research data with value for long term storage

    All data that will be collected, scripts, working reports, scientific posters.

    Research data excluded for long term storage. Why?

    None.

    Plans for sharing data?

    As far as possible all data will be publically available.

    How to access data once you leave?

    The PhD Library site of PPS, on this location all data for each chapter of my thesis will be stored in a seperate zip file. The Models Library Site of PPS for storing the model data.

    Other parties involved? Agreements on data sharing?

    The university of Leiden is involved. Data will be shared via Yoda.

    Other persons contributing (e.g. writing code)

    Martijne Kannekens (GHG emissions)

    Pepijn van Oort (crop modelling)

    Perry de Louw (hydrological modelling)

    Students writing their thesis.

    Other persons with specific responsibility for data?

    Hugo Bosland is responsible for collecting and managing the data used in the research, in consultation with the supervisor. At the end of his PhD project his data will be made publically available online if possible, at least his supervisors will receive a full copy of my data.

    Privacy, security issues? How you deal with them?

    All privacy sensitive dat will be excluded from my datasets.