Analysis of vegetation types affected by the 1997 forest fires in Sumatra

Abstract

It is important to know the types and the extent of land cover affected by the 1997 Indonesian fires in order to have a better understanding of the causes of fires and the damage to the forest ecology. We have produced burn scar maps of Sumatra island using intermediate resolution (100 m pixel separation) quicklook images from the SPOT satellites for the 1997 fires. A detailed land cover map of Sumatra were obtained by comparing the land cover maps of Laumonier with recent SPOT images. By superimposing the burn scar maps on the digitized land cover maps, the types and extent of land cover affected by fires can be obtained. We found that the 1997 fires occurred mainly in agricultural and plantation areas, and in easily accessible areas. Natural forests were hardly affected. There was high correlation of the burnt areas with peat covered areas in the 1997 fires.