Burning peatlands is a serious issue in Southeast Asia, especially when it causes prolonged haze that envelopes the region, causing much damage to public health and economies. One of the challenges is to know the exact location of the hotspots. Fires may occur in remote places with very few inhabitants and poor communication coverage. Land owners and managers cannot be everywhere at the same time. Due to the extent of land that they manage, it may take a long time before the land manager knows that his land is burning. Fires can be prevented by increased patrols and management action in high risk period. FDRS uses near real time data from more than 500 locations in ASEAN to predict fire risk. However, satellites are able to detect hotspots which can be shown on a map. Using satellite data collated by the ASEAN Specialised Meteorological Centre (ASMC) and Fire Danger Rating System (FDRS) maps from Malaysian Meteorological Department, combined with online databases and mapping technologies, the land managers can be noti_x005Fed of hotspot locations and _x005Fre danger risks.
A smartphone application – the ASEAN Fire Alert Tool was developed to send noti_x005Fcations to alert the land managers when a hotspot occurs on their land and inform the land managers _x005Fre risk level of the land. They are then able to verify ground conditions and take necessary action. The application allows users to determine their land boundaries and select Registration Points for monitoring changes of FDRS and Fire Weather Index (FWI).
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