SPATIAL ANALYSIS OF WILDFIRE IN THE SOUTH SUMATRA PEAT AREA DURING 2019 DROUGHT SEASONRaden Putra, Tastaptyani K. Nufutomo, Yuni Lisafitri, Novi K Sari and Alfian ZurfiAbstract South Sumatraâs peatland is the largest on the Sumatra island after Riau province. In the 2019 dry season, wildfires take place in most of the South Sumatra peatlands which generated a haze disaster in the South Sumatra region and beyond. This study aims to identify the characteristics of the wildfires in the South Sumatra peat area during the 2019 dry season. Remote sensing data and GIS techniques are applied in this study to realize the research purposes. Wildfires were analyzed using hotspot data and burned areas were obtained from spatial buffer analysis of hotspot data. For peatland distribution data, this study uses data from the Indonesian Ministry of Environment and Forestry in 2017. The results showed that in the 2019 dry season, wildfires took place on approximately 20% of South Sumatraâs peatlands. Characteristics of the peat fires distribution are concentrated in Ogan KomeringIlir and Musi Rawas Utara Districts. On the other hand, the lowest peat fire rate during the observation period was in Musi Rawas District. The wildfires during the observation period increased from June until October and decreased in November, with the peak of fires in October. Based on the results, fire prevention and management need to be improved. The priority for preventing and managing peat fires is focused on areas with massive fires during the dry season. |