Abstract:
Forest and land fires in 2019 were recorded as major events with extensive impacts on various aspects in Indonesia. An evaluation of forest and land fires in 2019 is required to determine the distribution and pattern of fires to be a significant input in overcoming forest and land fires in the future. This study aimed to evaluate forest fires based on area distribution, land cover, and area functions. This study used hotspot maps, land cover maps and forest area maps in 2019 to analyze the spatial distribution of locations and types of land cover that were indicated to be burning. The 2019 Landsat 8 OLI satellite images were used to identify types of land cover related to fires. We found that forest and land fires in 2019 in Indonesia were mostly spread on non-forest land with the type of land cover of shrubs, swamp shrub, and plantations with an area function for other use. The five provinces with the most fire hotspots detected were Central Kalimantan, West Kalimantan, Jambi, Riau, and South Sumatera. Most of the fire areas in the provinces that are vulnerable to fires are on peatlands. It requires serious and sustainable efforts to increase productivity and land value to reduce the area of unmanaged land and increase supervision of plantation companies that do not have an adequate forest and land fire management system.
