INTEGRATING MODIS IMAGERY AND GIS DATA FOR THE EMISSION INVENTORY OF BIOMASS OPEN BURNING IN SOUTHEAST ASIA

Abstract

Biomass open burning emissions emit large amounts of air pollutant into the atmosphere, which has significant contribution to atmospheric chemistry pollution and also climate change. Southeast Asia currently has vast areas committed to agriculture. The agricultural areas in Southeast Asia contribute a large number of emissions from biomass open burning. Biomass open burning in Southeast Asia also has a big impact such as haze problem because of vegetation slash and burn as an impact of land use change. Remote sensing is used in this research to calculate burned area and emissions of the Southeast Asia area. The aim of this research is to get emissions inventory from biomass open burning in Southeast Asia. The burning of peat land in Indonesia also emits large of emissions, therefore this case has taken as a specific topic in this research. MODIS burned area and land cover data product is used to detect burned area and also the fuel load in Southeast Asia due to emissions calculation. As a result of this research, on 2001-2007, there are several countries in Southeast Asia which play a big role in emits atmospheric chemistry. The resulting inventory map shows that Myanmar contributes almost 50% of the total burned area in Southeast Asia during January to April, mainly caused by the open burning of agricultural (savanna). Burned area in Thailand largely has happen during November and December. Approximately 80% of the total burned are was occurred in Indonesia during May to October. From this study result, spatial and temporal information, the source of emission from biomass open burning can be detected. The emission of carbon dioxide with the consideration of calculation peat soil burning is increased about 85% compared to the emission of biomass open burning without the consideration of calculation peat soil burning. The significant influence of emissions of biomass open burning to the aerosol concentration and air quality in Southeast Asia could be seen in this study. The correlation coefficient of biomass open burning emissions for CO2, CO, and CH4 is about 0.6. Further expectation, NGO activist, government or scientist can elaborate to prevent the impact of emission from biomass open burning.