Determining critical groundwater level to prevent degraded peatland from severe peat fire

4th International Symposium on LAPAN-IPB Satellite for Food Security and Environmental Monitoring

农业科学;生态环境科学

Putra, E.I.^1,2 ; Cochrane, M.A.^2 ; Vetrita, Y.^3,4 ; Graham, L.^5 ; Saharjo, B.H.^1

Faculty of Forestry, Bogor Agricultural University, Bogor, Indonesia^1

University of Maryland, Center for Environmental Sciences, Frostburg

MD, United States^2

Geospatial Sciences Center of Excellence (GSCE), South Dakota State University, Brookings

SD, United States^3

Indonesian National Institute of Aeronautics and Space (LAPAN), Jakarta, Indonesia^4

Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation (BOSF), Palangkaraya, Indonesia^5

关键词: Dry condition;    Dry seasons;    Fire condition;    Fire occurrences;    Fire risks;    Risk factors;    SST anomalies;    Wet season;   

Others  :  https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1755-1315/149/1/012027/pdf
DOI  :  10.1088/1755-1315/149/1/012027

来源: IOP

【 摘 要 】

Peat fires have been a severe recurrent problem for Indonesia, but droughts due to prolonged dry season aggravate burning conditions. To get a better understanding of this issue, we studied fire conditions in a portion of the ex-Mega Rice Project (MRP) area, Central Kalimantan. To examine fire season and hydrology factors affecting peat fires we analyzed daily TRMM data, Nino 3.4 SST Anomalies, and changing groundwater levels (GWL) from 300 dipwells. Our results quantify time-lags between the period of lowest precipitation and the lowest GWL; providing some ability to predict fire risk in advance of the lowest GWL. The rise of Nino 3.4 SST anomalies is significant risk factors for peat fire as they signify dry months which may yield large fire occurrences. GWL in 2011 was lower than in 2012, but fires were more frequent in 2012, indicating that low precipitation amounts in the wet season of 2011/2012 left the peat in a dry condition early in 2012. Most of the fires occurred in areas with GWL less than -30 cm, powerfully illustrating the importance of maintaining GWL at more than -10 cm, to prevent degraded peatlands from experiencing surface and deep peat fires.