Satellite fire detection in Indonesia
Fires detected by remote sensing in Indonesia.
In 2015, El Niño triggered fires in Indonesia that destroyed around 17,000 km2 of forest and plantations according to the Indonesian Ministry of Environment and Forests (Jakarta Post, 2015). The smoke blackened the sky over Borneo and Sumatra and parts of neighbouring Malaysia and Singapore.
In recent years, major peatland fire events occurred in 2006, 2009, 2013, 2014 and 2015, with states of emergency being declared in five Indonesian provinces as the fire season got underway in August 2017. This points to a long-term dramatic increase in fire vulnerability in drained Indonesian peatland landscapes. Fires are typically lit during the dry seasons on cleared or degraded forest lands to expand agricultural plantations. They are also used to open access to fishing pools, wildlife and other resources (Chokkalingam et al., 2007).
Year: 2017
From collection: Smoke on Water (Revised)
Cartographer: Nieves Lopez Izquierdo