Southeast Asia

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Southeast Asia Fire Danger Rating System Project
Bryan Lee, Michael Brady, Bill de Groot, Caren
Dymond, Robert Field, Orbita Roswintiarti Natural
Resources Canada, Canadian Forest Service
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Outline

• Project Goals
• Adaptation Activities
• Operation Activities
• Application Activities
• Linking ground-based FDRS with remote sensing
• Conclusions

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SE Asia FDRS Project

• Goals
• Enhance the application of fire science in SE
  Asia
• Develop early warning systems for fire and haze
  events using fire danger rating technology
• Improved mechanisms to manage transboundary haze

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Fire Danger

• The ability of a fire to start, spread and do
  damage

• Fire Danger Rating System
• Evaluates the fire environment on regular
  intervals and in an objective way
• Interpretation provides information and
  guidelines for fire management

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Benefits of a FDRS for Southeast Asia

• Provide an early warning system for fire and
  smoke events
• Promote the wise use of fire
• Support fire prevention fire activities
• Assist in managing fire fighting resources
• Promote technology transfer, fire science and
  policy formulation

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FDRS Structure
Weather
Topography
Fuels
Emissions Factors
Fire Weather
Fire Behavior
Fire Emissions
Guides and Systems developed by Fire Management
Research
Fire Management Resources
Values at Risk
Fire Management Decisions
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I. Status of SE ASIA Adaptation Activities

• Fire Climate Assessment (26 years) Sumatra

Understanding El-Nino affects
Non El-Nino Conditions
El-Nino Conditions
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I. Status of SE ASIA Adaptation Activities

• FDRS Calibration started for Indonesia and
  Malaysia

E.g. Climate distributions from 6-year NCDC data
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I. Status of SE ASIA Adaptation Activities

• FDRS Calibration

Based on satellite fire detection
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I. Status of SE ASIA Adaptation Activities

• FDRS Calibration

Based on visibility observations
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I. Status of SE ASIA Adaptation Activities

• Fuel Characterization

Closed forest
Woody Slash
Shrub-lands
Open forest
Grassland
Peat soil
Mineral soil
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I. Status of SE ASIA Adaptation Activities

• Fuel Mapping based on Landsat TM data from 2000

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I. Status of SE ASIA Adaptation Activities

• Field studies on peat moisture and grass biomass
• Lab studies testing ignition thresholds

Data collection complete data being analyzed
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I. Status of SE ASIA Adaptation Activities

• Training of developers and operators

Teams trained in Jakarta, Sandakan and Kuala
Lumpur
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II. Status of SE ASIA Operation Activities

• Daily FDRS map production

• Operating for
• SE Asia in Edmonton
• Indonesia in Jakarta and Medan
• Malaysia in Kuala Lumpur
• Soon to be Operating in
• Sandakan for Sabah

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II. Status of SE ASIA Operation Activities

• Communication of FDRS to users

• Web-based
• SE Asia in Edmonton
• Indonesia in Jakarta (www.fdrs.or.id)
• Kuala Lumpur for Malaysia
• 2-way Radio
• Within Fire Control Directorate for Indonesia
• Television
• Part of nightly news broadcast on a
  national Indonesian station

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II. Status of SE ASIA Operation Activities

• E.g. SE Asia website

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II. Status of SE ASIA Operation Activities

• Training in FDRS for users

Formal training program developed by a team from
4 countries.
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III. Status of SE ASIA Application Activities

• Fire Management ongoing activities

• Interpreting FDRS maps to aid fire managers
• Prevention programs
• Mobilization
• Suppression

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III. Status of SE ASIA Application Activities
E.g. Difficulty of Control Interpretation
Low Moderate High Extreme
These fires generally do not spread much beyond
their point of origin. Control of these fires is
easily accomplished through direct attack around
the entire fire perimeter by firefighters using
hand tools and water from backpack pumps.
Hand-constructed fireguards are likely to be
challenged. Water under pressure and heavy
machinery are generally required for effective
action at the fire's head. Severe drought
conditions and dangerous burning conditions
exist. The probability for suppression success is
low.
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III. Status of SE ASIA Application Activities

• Haze modeling ongoing activities

Fire Weather
Remote sensing
Fuel Type
Fuel Moisture
Fire Behavior
Fire Size
Fire Location
Atmospheric Conditions
Emission Yields
Transport and Deposition
Air Quality
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III. Status of SE ASIA Application Activities

• Haze modeling ongoing activities

Smoke from Borneo pollutes air in Malaysia
Smoke from Sumatra disperses into atmosphere
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Smoke Dispersion
III. Status of SE ASIA Application Activities

• Linking fire danger rating emissions with
  dispersion and transport models
• Retrospective simulation of severe episodes

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III. Status of SE ASIA Application Activities

• Haze modeling expected results

• Improved interpretation of monsoonal wind and
  thermodynamic patterns over Southeast Asia.
• New simulations of mesoscale wind and
  thermodynamic patterns during peak fire
  occurrences to support forecasting.

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III. Status of SE ASIA Application Activities
E.g. Early Warning of Haze Events
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Fire danger forecasting of fire activity and air
quality
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Discussion
Linking ground-based FDRS with remote sensing
projects
Fire Records Satellite Images Topography Human
Activities Fire Climate
Daily Satellite Images
Daily Weather Data
Hotspot Burned area Locations and Statistics
Daily FDRS Maps
Fire Management Resources
Fire Hazard Map
Fire Management Guidelines
Daily reports
Weekly status and forecasts
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Discussion
E.g. Monitoring through daily reports
Central Kalimantan 19/08/2002
MODIS rapid response
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Discussion
E.g. Burned area mapping

• Ground photograph of the large burned scar
• B) Burned scars (orange areas) as detected in a
  multitemporal ERS image
• C) The hotspots detected by NOAA-AVHRR are
  overlaid onto the ERS image
• From F. Siegert and A.A. Hoffmann 2000 Remote
  Sensing of Environment Volume 72, Issue 1, April,
  Pages 64-77

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Conclusions

• A Fire Danger Rating System exists for SE Asia
• Indonesia and Malaysia have the capacity to
  operate their own systems
• A regional system would be beneficial to forecast
  and monitor transboundary haze
• Many opportunities remain to improve the existing
  systems

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Thank you
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