The Analysis of Fire Hotspot Distribution in Kalimantan and Its Relationship with ENSO Phases

Kalimantan experiences fire hazards almost every year, which threaten the largest tropical forest in Southeast Asia. Climatic conditions, such as increasing surface temperature and decreasing rainfall, become important especially when El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO) occurs. Studies on fire are commonly conducted based on the climatic condition such as the dry or wet season, but those which focused on analysis of fire occurrences with the specific ENSO phases are still limited. This study aims to identify the spatial and temporal distribution of rainfall, land surface temperature, and soil moisture and analyses the distribution of hotspots in Kalimantan from 2014 to 2020 during different ENSO phases. The data used are Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) for hotspot analysis, Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) for rainfall analysis, MODIS Land Surface Temperature (LST) for surface temperature analysis and Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) for soil moisture analysis. The methods used were descriptive and spatial analyses based on each ENSO phase, which were then combined to analyse the temporal and spatial distribution of fire, rainfall, LST and soil moisture. The temporal distribution shows a positive relationship between ENSO, rainfall, LST, soil moisture and hotspots with a confidence level of 90 in the dry months of August-October. Fire occurred in most parts of West and Central Kalimantan, associated with low elevation, organic soil types and agricultural peatland. The average trend of increasing hotspots is 17.4 in the El Nino phase and decreasing hotspots by 84.7 in the La Nina phase during August-October in Kalimantan. © 2023 Rahma Aulia Zahra et al., published by Sciendo.