The relationship between ditch water level and peat subsidence; 50 years of measurements with levelling and subsidence plates in the Netherlands - dataset

This dataset provides the data that have been used in a paper submitted to Netherlands Journal of Geosciences. It provides measurement data of subsidence plates on 29 sites in peat meadow areas in the Netherlands. These plates are used to measure subsidence at different depths in the peat, which allows to determine where in the soil profile the subsidence occurs. The accompanying paper shows that over 50 years, the soil surface level has dropped by an average of 0.7 cm/year. The paper also investigates: 1) whether there is a relationship between ditch water level and soil surface subsidence, 2) how subsidence is distributed over soil depth, and what this means for the contribution of different subsidence processes and 3) how subsidence rate has changed over time.