Temporal Distribution and Causes of Forest and Land Fires in North

Sumatera Province, Indonesia

A. S. Thoha

, Onrizal

and P. Patana

Faculty of Forestry, Universitas Sumatera Utara,, Jalan Tridarma Ujung No. 1 Medan, Indonesia

Keywords: Forest and land fires, hotspot, spatial analysis, fire period.

Abstract: Determining the characteristic of fires and fire-prone areas will help in low-emission land-based development

planning. This study aims to identify temporal patterns and causes of forest and land fires in North Sumatra.

The temporal pattern was determined by spatial analysis and descriptive of rainfall and fire hotspot during

2001-2017. The causes of fire were determined by observation and in-depth interview on the location of the

indication of fire based on hotspot density analysis result. Based on temporal distribution, the hotspot of fire

increases every five years. Peak forest and land fires occurred in two periods each year namely February-

March and June-August. The causes of forest and land fires in North Sumatra were not same across regions.

The most common causes were fires due to land clearing activities for plantation areas, whether coffee

plantations, rubber plantations or oil palm plantations. Other causes were grazing, negligence of the

community, conflict companies and for customary reasons.

1 INTRODUCTION

Recurrent forest and land cultivation incidents

and increasingly severe impacts should receive the

attention of all parties. In Indonesia, forest and land

fires occur repeatedly almost every year during the

dry season with different frequency and level of risk.

The impacts of forest and land fires will be worse

when they occur on peatlands. Peatland fires in

1997/1998 that occurred El Nino in Indonesia,

contributing 13-40% of emissions from global

emissions. (Page 2002, Harrison, et al. 2009 and

Langmann et al., 2009). According to data from the

National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB) of

forest and land fires in 2015 estimated to result in

losses of 221 trillion rupiah (Kompas.com, 2016). In

the long run, the impact of fires resulted in global

warming, loss of biodiversity and desertification

(Goldammer et al., 2006).

North Sumatera Province is one of the prone areas

of forest and land fires in Indonesia. In North

Sumatra, there are thousands of hectares of peatland

and natural reed grasslands and critical lands that are

prone to fire during the dry season. In 2013, the area

of critical land in North Sumatra reached 1,069,467

hectares (KLHK, 2017). Extensive critical land is

located in Lake Toba Water Dump Area (DTA)

which reaches 248,000 hectares or 45% of the total

DTA area (beritasatu.com, 2016). Critical land in the

form shrubs and reed are generally not managed

generally will be a source of fire (Thoha et al 2014,

Prasetyo et al 2016).

Development of Early Warning Systems for

Community-based Forest and Land Fire is urgently

needed to find solutions from today's centralized and

costly systems and encourage people to play a more

active role in their own protection. According to

UNISDR (2009), the community-based early warning

system is a community-centered system consisting of

four key elements; (i) knowledge of risk (ii)

monitoring, analyzing and forecasting hazard threats,

(iii) communication or dissemination of alert

messages and warnings; and (iv) local capacity to

respond to warnings received. According to de Leon

(2009) Community Early Warning System is an

operational structure that allows residents to take

steps to minimize the impact of natural disasters.

Determining the characteristics of fire in the form

of temporal pattern and the cause of fire is an

important step in order to build early warning system.

Determination of fire characteristics will assist in the

planning of development of low-emission land-based

areas. This study aims to identify the temporal

distribution and causes of forest and land fires in

North Sumatra.

Thoha, A., Onrizal, . and Panata, P.

Temporal Distribution and Causes of Forest and Land Fires in North Sumatera Province, Indonesia.

DOI: 10.5220/0010088300610066

In Proceedings of the International Conference of Science, Technology, Engineering, Environmental and Ramiﬁcation Researches (ICOSTEERR 2018) - Research in Industry 4.0, pages

61-66

ISBN: 978-989-758-449-7

2 MATERIAL AND METHOD

2.1 Material

The materials in this research were hotspot map 2001-

2017 from MODIS satellite (Moderate-resolution

Imaging Spectroradiometer), map of district

administration boundary and monthly rainfall. The

tool in this research consisted of data collection tools

and data analysis tools. Field data retrieval tools

included GPS, camera and voice recorder. Data

analysis tool was Spreadsheet software and GIS

Software.

2.2 Method

2.2.1 Data Collection

Hotspot data from Terra / Aqua satellites with

MODIS (Moderate-resolution Imaging

Spectroradiometer) sensor of 2001-2017 were

obtained from Fire Information for Resource

Management System (FIRMS) which can be accessed

free of charge at https://earthdata.nasa.gov/data/near-

real-time data/firms/active-fire-data. Field rainfall

data was obtained from Indonesian Agency for

Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Region I

Medan. To determine the location of the survey for

observation and groundcheck obtained based on input

from Manggala Agni Natural Resources

Conservation Center of North Sumatra and spatial

analysis results based on villages with high density

hotspots. For the collection of fire characteristic data

obtained from the observation and recording of

community activities at the site of the fire through

interviews with the community about the history of

the fire, the cause of fire and the practice of the

community to prepare the land by burning. Public

knowledge of the causes of fires was obtained

through indepth-interview. Interview sources were

selected through snowballing method with the first

resource person becomes the key person in

determining the next response. (Bungin, 2010).

2.2.2 Temporal Analysis of Forest and Land

Fires

Identification of forest and land fire characteristics

was determined by determining the temporal pattern

of fires conducted by field rainfall data analysis and

number of annual hotspots and monthly hotspots.

Hotspots with level above 50% were used to analyze

fire analysis because they were categorized as

hotspots that fall within the nominal and high

category (Giglio et al., 2015) and vigilant and

immediate action of fire prevention in the field

(LAPAN 2016) was required. Thoha et al. (2014)

found that Terra Aqua satellite hotspot (MODIS) with

level above 50% illustrates a strong relationship with

fire activity in the field.

2.2.3 Analysis of Causes of Forest and Land

Fire and Local Community Knowledge

Descriptive and tabulation analysis was used to find

the cause of forest and land fires in relation to

community activities. Community activity data

analyzed was obtained by observing and recording

community activities at the site of the fire through

interviews about the history of fires, the causes of

fires and the practice of preparing the land by

burning. The location of interview was determined

from the village that has a hotspot and

recommendation from the local government about

prone villages to forest and land fires. The result of

spatial analysis and recommendation from institution

that play a role in forest and land fire control was 25

villages in six districts for field observation and

interview.

3 RESULT AND DISCUSSIONS

North Sumatra Province is one of the provinces

whose territory occurs forest and land fire in the dry

season. Based on fire historical data from hotspot

MODIS with level confidence more than 50% (C>

50), the distribution of hotspots yearly and monthly

in North Sumatra province can be seen in Figure 1

and Figure 2.

The hot spot observed from satellites in North

Sumatra Province for 17 years (Figure 1) shows that

there is a steady increase in hotspots every five years.

In the first five years (2001-2005) the hotspot

increased in 2004 and 2005. Furthermore, the

hotspots increased to the highest number in 2009 and

2014. This pattern is not in accordance with climatic

conditions in Indonesia in general where in the years

of anomalies climate with below average rainfall or

El Nino (2002 and 2015) the number of hotspots is

not too high number. The highest hotspot in North

Sumatra occurred in 2005 where in general the

ICOSTEERR 2018 - International Conference of Science, Technology, Engineering, Environmental and Ramiﬁcation Researches

3,42

8,06

8,67

2,51

9,65

17,45

24,92

15,59

3,74

4,18

0,92

0,88

0,00

5,00

10,00

15,00

20,00

25,00

30,00

PercentageofHotspot(%)

Month

100

200

300

400

500

600

700

jan/06

out/06

jul/07

abr/08

jan/09

out/09

jul/10

abr/11

jan/12

out/12

jul/13

abr/14

jan/15

out/15

Hotspotnumber

Rainfall(mm)

Month‐ year

climatic conditions in Indonesia are not in El Nino

condition at high level.

Figure 1. Distribution of hotspots percentage per year in

North Sumatra Province

Analysis of hotspots on a monthly basis shows

that for almost 17 years, the highest percentage of

hotspots occurred in July at 24.92%. This means that

fire activity in a year is potentially very large in July.

The hotspots in North Sumatra Province have two

periods of increasing both the number and

percentage. The first period of hotspots increases

from January to April while the second period is June-

August. Thoha et al. (2014) in Central Kalimantan

and Tata et al (2018) in Riau found a similar pattern

that hotspots increase in June-August each year.

Figure 2. Percentage of hotspots per month in North

Sumatra Province

From the analysis of hotspot distribution and

interviews with fire control stakeholders, there are

three groups of fire prone areas in North Sumatra. The

first is the highland and hilly areas in Karo District,

Toba Samosir and Simalungun. Second, peatland and

lowland areas, where fire-prone areas are scattered in

Labuhan Batu Utara, Labuhan Batu, Labuhan Batu

Selatan and Asahan. Third, hilly lowlands and

mineral soil areas, where fire-prone areas are found in

Padang Lawas, Padang Lawas Utara and Mandailing

Natal.

Based on the temporal analysis of rainfall and

hotspots, it is found that there are differences in

distribution patterns between the three groups of fire

areas. Figure 3 shows the temporal distribution

patterns of forest and land fires occurring in

mountainous areas.

Figure 3. Temporal distribution of rainfall (blue line) and

hotspots (red line) in mountainous areas of North Sumatra.

Temporal patterns of forest and land fires in upland

areas in North Sumatra indicate that hotspots increase

in number when rainfall decreases sharply (very low).

Generally, hotspots that describe the activity of fire

began to increase in June-August in 2006 - 2013 and

February - March in 2014-2015. This indicates there

are two periods of forest and land fires in the

highlands of North Sumatra.

Figure 4 shows the temporal pattern of hotspots and

rainfall of lowland and peatland areas in North

Sumatra. The temporal pattern in this second area

indicates that there are two periods of fire each year

between February-April and June-August for the last

10 years. In very low rainfall conditions, hotspots will

increase sharply.

Figure 4. Temporal distribution of rainfall (blue line) and

hotspots (red line) in lowland and peatlands in North

Sumatra Province

Temporal Distribution and Causes of Forest and Land Fires in North Sumatera Province, Indonesia

100

120

140

160

100

200

300

400

500

600

700

jan/06

set/06

mai/07

jan/08

set/08

mai/09

jan/10

set/10

mai/11

jan/12

set/12

mai/13

jan/14

set/14

mai/15

Hotspotnumber

Rainfall(mm)

Month‐ year

Temporal pattern of rainfall and hotspots

relationship in lowland non-peat hilly areas is

presented in Figure 5. Based on Figure 5, when

rainfall decreases sharply, there is a very high

increase of hotspots. In this region, temporal patterns

of precipitation and hotspots indicate that there are

two periods of fire activity (increased hotspots)

namely on February-March and June-August.

Figure 5. Temporal distribution of rainfall and hotspots of

precipitation and hotspots in non-peat hilly lowland areas in

North Sumatra Province.

Rainfall is very influential on the water content of

fuel, especially on peatlands. As rainfall increases,

peatlands will store large amounts of water so that the

water content of the fuel increases and is difficult to

be burned. When the rainfall decreases, the water

content of the peat decreases. Peat with low moisture

is very susceptible to burning. Taufik et al (2011)

explains that rainfall is very influential on the

dynamics of groundwater and groundwater levels.

The fluctuations of both are strongly influenced by

the dynamics of rain falling and wetting the soil. In

low rainfall seasons, water levels fall on critical

thresholds that cause highly flammable peatlands

(Wosten et al 2008).

An increase in the number of hotspots in June-

August is related to community activities that adjust

to the end of the dry season and the beginning of the

rainy season. In June, most of the livelihoods of

farmers have cleared and cleared land for cultivation.

Burned and cleaned fuels are allowed to dry for one

to two months. The following month is August at the

end of the dry season according to their habit of

burning biomass or waste from clearing the land.

Community activity related to clearing of land in the

dry season is also confirmed in the Someshwar et al

(2010) study which mentions that fires in Central

Kalimantan occurred during the dry season from May

to September. Farmers and planters cleared land

during that time, when the biomass was drier. Study

by Thoha et al. (2014) in Borneo Tenagh also found

that when rainfall decreases, hotspots increase

sharply, especially in August-October. The temporal

analysis of hotspots and rains is also in line with

predictions from local knowledge in Central

Kalimantan where in June-August most forest and

land fires occur (Thoha et al., 2018)

Forest and land fires in North Sumatra province

are closely related to community activities that adjust

to the period or season of fire. Results of interviews

with communities at various fire-prone sites or fire

prone locations were found to be the cause of fires as

presented in Table 1. According to Table 1, causes of

forest and land fires in North Sumatra are not same

across regions. The most common causes are fires due

to bushfire activity and land clearing activities for dry

agricultural land, coffee plantation and rubber

plantations. Other causes are grazing (Padang Lawas

Utara), neglect of the community, conflicts with

companies and customary reason (calling for rain).

Research conducted by [20] in Kapuas which

was area of peatland found that sources of land fires

are also from farmers and fishers. This is in

accordance with the descriptions in Table 1 that most

fires originate from community activities for dry

agriculture land clearing that many are found in

Simalungun, Labuhan Batu Utara, Tapanuli Utara,

Karo, Padang Lawas Utara and Dairi Districts.

Research conducted by [8] in Kapuas District, Central

Kalimantan, found the causes of forest and land fires

from human activities generally derived from shrubs

and grassland that are unmanaged land. This was

consistent with the results of research that the land of

shrubs and grassland are often become source of fire

which then spread to plantations and

forests as found in Simalungun, Padang Lawas and

Padang Lawas Utara.

200

400

600

800

1000

1200

100

200

300

400

500

600

700

jan/06

out/06

jul/07

abr/08

jan/09

out/09

jul/10

abr/11

jan/12

out/12

jul/13

abr/14

jan/15

out/15

Hotspotnumber

Rainfall(mm)

Month‐Year

ICOSTEERR 2018 - International Conference of Science, Technology, Engineering, Environmental and Ramiﬁcation Researches

4 CONCLUSION

Based on temporal distribution, the hotspots of fires

in North Sumatra have increased considerably every

five years. There are two periods in a year where

hotspots are increasing from February to March and

June-August. The highest percentage of hotspots

occurred in July. The causes of forest and land fires

in North Sumatra are not the same across regions. The

most common causes are fires due to land clearing

activities for plantation areas, whether coffee

plantations, rubber plantations or oil palm

plantations. Other causes are grazing, negligence of

the community, conflicts with companies and

customary reasons.

Table 1. Causes of Forest and Land Fires in North Sumatra

Remark : 1 (present), 0 (absent), Sim (Simalungun), Tos (Toba Samosir, Huh (Humbang Hasundutan), Asa ((Asahan), Lau

(Labuhan Batu Utara), Kar (Karo), Plu (Padang Lawas Utara), Tau (Tapanuli Utara), Dai (Dairi),

Source: interview with villagers and BKSDA, 2016-2018

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