Estimation model of groundwater table at peatland in Central Kalimantan, Indonesia

Abstract

This research is investigating the ground water table at forested peatland in Kalimantan which is expected to be an indicator for better wild fire control. Firstly, modified Keeth-Byram drought index (mKBDI) was computed by incorporating satellite-based precipitation GSMaP and MTSAT land surface temperature (LST). Secondly a regression analysis was carried out between mKBDI and near surface ground water table (GWT) measurements at drained forest (DF), un-drained forest (UF) and drained burnt forest (DB) respectively. Overall a modeled GWT at forested peatland showed very good time-series of behaviors along with that of insitu measurement. A modeled GWT was more sensitive to precipitation resulting in a drastic water table rise-up and more calibration is indispensable to get a better result. A comparison of GWT and hotpot detected by MODIS showed that lower GWT areas clearly have more fire occurrences. It was found that mKBDI was well calibrated with GWT at the above mentioned three measurements sites and a very good indicator for peat fire risk zone mapping at forested peatland. These modeling results are updated in a near-real time fashion and all the database are open to public at http://jica-jst.lapanrs.com/GWT/.