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SERVIR-Mekong's Geospatial Technology Helps Combat Forest Fires in Northern Thailand

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This article, featured as a blog post on Climatelinks, was written by Ankit Joshi of SERVIR-Mekong/ADPC and was originally featured on ADPC's SERVIR-Mekong website. Click here to go to the original post. 

March marks the onset of the dry and hot season in Thailand. In the region, dry vegetation coupled with small human-made fires often result in uncontrolled forest fires. Agricultural burning and forest fires, including transboundary haze, contribute to high levels of pollution. Forest fires release particulate matter (PM) into the atmosphere. PM is a common proxy indicator of air pollution consisting of sulfates, nitrates, ammonia, sodium chloride, black carbon, mineral dust and water. PM2.5 refers to microscopic particles with a diameter of 2.5 microns or less - 30 times smaller than the diameter of the human hair.

Forest fires have a huge impact on the health of communities living in adjoining areas, and beyond. PM2.5 released during forest fires and agricultural burning can penetrate the lung barrier and enter the blood system. Chronic exposure to PM2.5 increases the risk of developing cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, as well as of lung cancer. A recent research paper published by The Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago, concludes that long-term exposure to fine particulate pollution is shortening the average life expectancy in Thailand by more than two years.

Image of recent forest fires in Chiang Rai province, image credit Forest Fire Control, Protected Areas Regional Office 15

Recent forest fires in Chiang Rai province started at night and continued to burn parts of the forest

the following day.  Image credit: Forest Fire Control, Protected Areas Regional Office 15 (Chiang Rai).

This year, Dr. Nion Sirimongkonlertkul and her team from Rajamangala University of Technology, Thailand, in collaboration with SERVIR-Mekong, a partnership between USAID and NASA, are championing the use of geospatial data to monitor fire hotspots and formulate targeted interventions to put out the fires.

SERVIR-Mekong’s Air Quality Explorer tool combines satellite data and models from NASA to enable monitoring and forecasting of air quality in Thailand. This information helps authorities devise data-driven policies and strategies to tackle air pollution. The tool has been developed in collaboration with Thailand’s Pollution Control Department and the Geo-Informatics and Space Technology Development Agency — Thailand’s space agency.

Chart for 2021 graphing PM2.5 Concentration and Fire Hotspots

The dry and hot season that started in March 2021 led to an increase in the number of fire hotspots in Northern Thailand,

 resulting in increased levels of PM 2.5 pollution in the atmosphere. Data source: PM 2.5 data from GEOS-5 satellite;

Fire hotspot data from NASA FIRMS. Northern Thailand includes the provinces of Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai,

Lam Phun, Lam Pang, Mae Hong Son, Nan, Phrae and Pha Yao.

Dr. Nion and the Chiang Rai provincial government developed the Smoke Watch App that is used by officials to monitor and manage forest fires in Chiang Rai Province in Northern Thailand. The Smoke Watch App uses data from the SERVIR-Mekong Air Quality Explorer tool to locate forest fires in near real-time. Using satellites to give locations of fires as they happen enables first responders and forest rangers to go to the exact locations and undertake targeted interventions to put out the fires. Thailand aims to reduce the number of regional fire hotspots by 20 percent in 2021 from the previous year.

“Previously, it was very difficult and time-consuming for the Forest Fire Department to filter and localize fire hotspots. They would rely on notifications from the community informing them about the exact location of the fires” said Dr. Nion. “Near real-time fire hotspot data from the SERVIR-Mekong Air Quality Explorer tool is instrumental in pinpointing fire hotspots. The faster we identify the fire hotspots, the quicker we can respond to the fires, as a result, less PM 2.5 pollution is released into the atmosphere.”