Full Text

Turn on search term navigation

© 2023 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.

Abstract

Rewetting peatland is an ongoing effort in Indonesia to restore the hydrological cycle and carbon balance of the ecosystem. However, quantifying the impact of rewetting on mitigating fire remains a challenge. Here, we assess the impact of large-scale rewetting on fire risks and occurrences (duration, coverage area, and the number of events) in 2015–2021. The weather research and forecasting (WRF) model was integrated with a drought–fire model to spatially quantify fire hazards in Riau, Sumatra. The results show that rewetting has resulted in decreasing the frequency of extreme events in the study area (pre- and post-rewetting, respectively, were seven and four events). Although the area influenced by extreme events reduced following rewetting by 5%, the mean duration of extreme events increased. Our findings reveal that widespread prolonged extreme fire hazards only occurred during drying El Niño events in 2015 and 2019. The findings obtained in this case study provide quantitative evidence of the reduced fire hazard resulting from peat restoration in Indonesia. Further, the findings assist in assessing the success of peatland restoration programs and improve our knowledge of the ability to monitor and forecast fire risks in tropical peatlands.

Details

Title
The Impact of Rewetting Peatland on Fire Hazard in Riau, Indonesia
Author
Muh Taufik 1   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Haikal, Mudrik 1   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Marliana Tri Widyastuti 2   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Chusnul Arif 3   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Santikayasa, I Putu 1 

 Department of Geophysics and Meteorology, IPB University, Jalan Meranti Wing 19 Lvl 4 Darmaga Campus, Bogor 16680, Indonesia 
 School of Life and Environmental Science, Sydney Institute of Agriculture, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia 
 Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Kampus IPB Darmaga, IPB University, Bogor 16680, Indonesia 
First page
2169
Publication year
2023
Publication date
2023
Publisher
MDPI AG
e-ISSN
20711050
Source type
Scholarly Journal
Language of publication
English
ProQuest document ID
2775010124
Copyright
© 2023 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.