Fire is traditionally used by the shifting cultivators and small-scale farmers as a tool for clearing land in the Southeast asian region. In recent years, fire has increasingly been used by large plantations to clear land and for conversion of forest into plantations and agricultural land. In time of drought, the fires may go out of control, resulting in severe damage to the forest and the surrounding region.
The 1997/98 forest fire episode in Southeast Asia has attracted international attention. The fires which occurred primarily in the Sumatra and Borneo islands and aggravated by the drought due to the El Nino Southern Oscillation phenomenon, resulted in increased aerosol loading (smoke-haze) over the region. The economic damage resulting from the haze has been reported to be in the range of billions of dollars. Millions of hectares of land/forest have been burnt. The environmental impacts of the fires include the loss of biodiversity, loss of forests as carbon sinks and emission of greenhouse gases which may influence the global climatic systems.
In response to this situation, daily fire monitoring operation of the region using full-resolution SPOT images has been carried out at CRISP, in collaboration with the Ministry of Environment, Singapore. CRISP has also acquired many SPOT, ERS and RADARSAT images of the areas affected by fires.
This web page provides links to other pages describing the daily fire monitoring operation and other fire-related research activities in CRISP.
Forest/PlantationFires on 04 July 2001
Featured here are MODIS and SPOT images showing forest and plantations in Sumatra on 04 July 2001.
SPOT Images of Forest/PlantationFires
Featured here are SPOT image sequences showing evolution of fires in forest and plantations in various places. Images from 1997/98 and the more recent fires in 1999 are included.
Daily Fire Monitoring Operation
This article gives a detailed description of the fire monitoring operation carried out daily at CRISP.
Fires-related Research at CRISP
CRISP's publications related to Forest Fires.
Forest-Fires and Haze Related Websites