Integrating Wildland and Urban Fire Risks in Local Development Strategies in Indonesia
This paper examines wildland and urban fires situations in Indonesia. On one hand, during the dry season when wetland dry out, large scale wildland/forest fires may occur on dry land and also on wetland such as peatland or peat-forest. Wildland fires, esp
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Integrating Wildland and Urban Fire Risks in Local Development Strategies in Indonesia Yulianto Sulistyo Nugroho
Abstract
This paper examines wildland and urban fires situations in Indonesia. On one hand, during the dry season when wetland dry out, large scale wildland/forest fires may occur on dry land and also on wetland such as peatland or peat-forest. Wildland fires, especially when involving peat land fires can be viewed as a regional and global disaster. Smouldering combustion of peatland fires produces thick haze that directly impact the life of the local peoples and can spread to other region and neighbouring countries. On the other hand, as consequences of economic development, rapid urbanization occurs. It is expected that larger portions of the populations will move to urban areas result in higher densities of people and complex highrise buildings and lines of utility infrastructures. These new build environments are prone with urban fires problems. Risk reduction efforts in wildland and urban areas becomes more significant than ever. Better understanding of fire phenomena in urban and wildland areas, and the needs of fire hazards response management, leads the efforts in integrating wildland and urban fire risks in national and local development strategies in Indonesia. # Springer 2015. Keywords
Wildland fire Urban fire Fire risk Risk reduction Development strategies
4.1
Introduction
Indonesia is one of the most disaster prone countries in the world. The country faces multiple hazards such as earthquake, tsunami, volcanic eruption, flood, landslide, drought, and forest fires. Of the numerous disaster that have happened in Indonesia during the past 30 years (1982–2012) there are 10,817 disaster events. The most frequently occurring is flood (4121 events), followed by landslide (1983 events), strong wind (1903 events), drought (1414 events), and other disaster (1397 events). During this period, the disasters have
Y.S. Nugroho (*) Department of Mechanical Engineering, Universitas Indonesia, Kampus UI, Depok 16424, Indonesia e-mail: [email protected]
claimed 225,509 lives, including the great earthquake and tsunami in Aceh in 2004 [1]. The increase in population and the limited paddy fields in Java, prompted the government in 1990s to convert peat and lowland swamp to rice cultivation and nature areas. However, the construction of canals often cut through the centre of peat domes resulting in excessive drainage, subsidence, irreversible drying, loss of habitat and increased risk, frequency and severity of fire [2, 3]. Some of these peatlands have become degraded with negative environmental and socioeconomic consequences [3]. Despite the growth in mining, manufacturing, agriculture and services sectors, forestry are very important to the Indonesian economy. However, practices that include forest clearing are connected to commercial activities, such as slashing leave behind dry fuel loads that are more susceptible to wildfire. These fires also cause noticeable secondary
# Springer Science
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