Application of Remote Sensing for Determination of Power Plant Area: Case Study of Lumut Balai, South Sumatra

Abstract

Subduction zone located beneath Sumatra, Indonesia causes the formation of volcanic sequences, which can be associated with the potential of geothermal energy. One of them is Lumut Balai area in South Sumatra. A study of using remote sensing method was conducted as one of the preliminary methods to find out the geothermal potential in the Lumut Balai area. In this case, an analysis of regional geology maps, Landsat 8 OLI / TIRS, and digital elevation model (DEM) was carried out. The geothermal potential is obtained based on a combination of anomalies in land surface temperature (LST), the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), and distribution of alteration zones. The analysis of NDVI result shows the Lumut Balai area dominated by mostly moderate to high level of vegetation density up to 0.88. Whereas, the LST result shows the maximum value, which is 40.3°C located at the residential area in the north and the open land in the northwest of Lumut Balai. The correlation between the results of LST and NDVI has been shown in geothermal surface manifestations, that have vegetation less than 0.88 while the temperatures show a higher value up to 40°C than the surrounding its area. While the results of the DEM analysis provide topographic information, the slope in the study area used to determine the area for development of power plant. The power plant more likely to be located in the southwest and northeast of Lumut Balai where it has flat terrain and not in the near-fault area.