Variabilitas Iklim dan Kejadian Kebakaran Hutan dan Lahan Gambut di Kabupaten Bengkalis, Provinsi Riau.

Abstract

Bengkalis is one of districts which is vulnerable to forest and peatland fires in Riau due to land use change. This research aims to compare the observation climate data of Indonesian Agency for Meteorological, Climatological and Geophysics (BMKG) and global climate data from Climatic Research Unit (CRU) satellite as factors that affect the incidence of forest and peatland fires, analyze the distribution of forest and peatland fires in Bengkalis, and analyze the correlation between the elements climate (rainfall, maximum air temperature, and average air temperature) of CRU satellite and hotspot as an indicator of forest and peatland fires in Bengkalis. The result of the research revealed that climate patterns of CRU satellite in line with climate patterns of BMKG observations.. Spatial distribution of hotspots, 1998, 2002, 2004, 2005, 2006, and 2009 had the highest number of hotspots. Most hotspots are in the peat soil types Hemists/Saprists (60/40), very deep and on land cover shrub swamp. The maximum air temperature and average air temperature significant (p-value <0.05) to the number of hotspots while the rainfall did not significantly affect the number of hotspots. The best model also showed the absence of a suitable model to describe the relationship between elements of the climate and the number of hotspots.