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.