Evaluation the Effectiveness Implementation of the Weather Modification Technology for Mitigating Peatland Fires

Abstract

The objective of this article is to evaluate the effectiveness implementation of the weather modification technology (WMT) for mitigating peatland fire disasters in Riau Province, Indonesia. The implementation of this WMT in Indonesia has been relatively new and challenging as this cutting-edge technology may increase the precipitation rates and therefore, it may reduce the risk of peat fire hazards in the huge massive areas. The Riau province has experienced serious peatland fire disasters from the period of 2014 to 2016. The evaluation of WMT in this article was focused on four regions within Riau encompassing Indragiri Hilir regency, Meranti Island, Pelalawan, and Siak. The Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite data were used to calculate the precipitation rates. The method applied to evaluating the effectiveness of WMT was the Target Only Method (TOM). This method calculated the precipitation rates during the WMT period, which is compared to the historical precipitation data in a similar period. The total duration of a 3-year WMT implementation was 380 days, and the results were considered successful as an increase of precipitation rate (PCH) = 2.09 > 1.00. Hence, there was an increase in the average of precipitation rate during WMT period of 2014-2016 in Riau.

Weather Modification Technology as an Engineering Solution for Reducing Peat Fire Disasters

“…Hence, the Indonesian government has established some efforts to suppress peat fires with various methods including the implementation of WMT [3], [4], [6], [10].…”

“…Commonly the cloud seeding processes injected NaCl particles into convective clouds (within an area where hail embryos form if the cloud is seeded) (Figure 2). Then this cloud will be expected potentially to cause rainfall [4], [5], [11].…”

“…Based on Sandhyavitri, 2018 [3], Sandhyavitri, 2020 [4], and Sigit 2020 [10], the implementation of WMT in Riau from 2013-2016 was considered effective in increasing the precipitation rate for the mitigation of peat fires in Riau Province, Indonesia.…”

“…The atmospheric condition was regulated by implementing weather modification technology (WMT). The Environmental Engineering Research, Weather Modification Center (Balai Besar Teknologi Modifikasi Cuaca -BPPT), Indonesia has conducted this WMT since 2009 [3], [4], [5], [6].…”

“…The implementation of WMT for the prevention and mitigation of peat fires has been conducted for more than 12 years in Indonesia, but publications concerning the roles of this WMT in reducing peat fire cases were relatively rare [8], [6]. Hence there is a need to evaluate to what extent the implementation of WMT can play its role in reducing peat fire disasters [9], [4], [10]. Hence this study becomes interesting and can be a basis for exploring further research in the field of engineering solutions for mitigating peat fires.…”