GAMBUT field experiment of peatland wildfires in Sumatra: from ignition to spread and suppression
Muhammad A. Santoso
A E , Eirik G. Christensen A , Hafiz M. F. Amin A B , Pither Palamba C , Yuqi Hu A D , Dwi M. J. Purnomo A , Wuquan Cui A , Agus Pamitran E , Franz Richter A , Thomas E. L. Smith F , Yulianto S. Nugroho E and Guillermo Rein A *
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations
A Department of Mechanical Engineering, and Leverhulme Centre for Wildfires, Environment and Society, Imperial College London, London, SW7 2AZ, UK.
B School of Computing, Engineering & Digital Technologies, Teesside University, Middlesbrough, UK.
C Department of Mechanical Engineering, Universitas Cenderawasih, Jayapura, Indonesia.
D Sichuan Fire Research Institute of the Ministry of Emergency Management, Chengdu, China.
E Department of Mechanical Engineering, Universitas Indonesia, 16424, West Java, Indonesia.
F Department of Geography & Environment, London School of Economics & Political Science, London, UK.
* Correspondence to: g.rein@imperial.ac.uk
International Journal of Wildland Fire 31(10) 949-966 https://doi.org/10.1071/WF21135
Submitted: 6 October 2021 Accepted: 7 August 2022 Published: 28 September 2022
© 2022 The Author(s) (or their employer(s)). Published by CSIRO Publishing on behalf of IAWF. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY)
Abstract
Peat wildfires can burn over large areas of peatland, releasing ancient carbon and toxic gases into the atmosphere over prolonged periods. These emissions cause haze episodes of pollution and accelerate climate change. Peat wildfires are characterised by smouldering – the flameless, most persistent type of combustion. Mitigation strategies are needed in arctic, boreal, and tropical areas but are hindered by incomplete scientific understanding of smouldering. Here, we present GAMBUT, the largest and longest to-date field experiment of peat wildfires, conducted in a degraded peatland of Sumatra. Temperature, emission and spread of peat fire were continuously measured over 4–10 days and nights, and three major rainfalls. Measurements of temperature in the soil provide field experimental evidence of lethal fire severity to the biological system of the peat up to 30 cm depth. We report that the temperature of the deep smouldering is ~13% hotter than shallow layer during daytime. During night-time, both deep and shallow smouldering had the same level of temperature. The experiment was terminated by suppression with water. Comparison of rainfall with suppression confirms the existence of a critical water column height below which extinction is not possible. GAMBUT provides a unique understanding of peat wildfires at field conditions that can contribute to mitigation strategies.
Keywords: fire behaviour, emission, spread, haze, peat, slash-and-burn, smouldering, suppression.
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