Catastrophic impact of extreme 2019 Indonesian peatland fires on urban air quality and health
File(s)
Published version
Author(s)
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Tropical peatland fires generate substantial quantities of airborne fine particulate matter (PM2.5) and in Indonesia are intensified during El Niño-related drought leading to severe air quality impacts affecting local and distant populations. Limited in-situ data often necessitates reliance on air quality models, like that of the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service, whose accuracy in extreme conditions is not fully understood. Here we demonstrate how a network of low-cost sensors around Palangka Raya, Central Kalimantan during the 2019 fire season, quantified extreme air quality and city-scale variability. The data indicates relatively strong model performance. Health impacts are substantial with estimates of over 1200 excess deaths in the Palangka Raya region, over 3200 across Central Kalimantan and more than 87,000 nationwide in 2019 due to fire-induced PM2.5 exposure. These findings highlight the need for urgent action to mitigate extreme fire events, including reducing fire use and landscape remediation to prevent peat fire ignition.
Date Issued
2024-11-02
Date Acceptance
2024-10-18
Citation
Communications Earth & Environment, 2024, 5
ISSN
2662-4435
Publisher
Nature Portfolio
Journal / Book Title
Communications Earth & Environment
Volume
5
Copyright Statement
© The Author(s) 2024 Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
License URL
Identifier
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/39497724
PII: 1813
Subjects
BIOMASS BURNING EMISSIONS
BIRTH-WEIGHT
CENTRAL KALIMANTAN
Environmental Sciences
Environmental Sciences & Ecology
EXPOSURE
Geology
Geosciences, Multidisciplinary
GLOBAL MORTALITY
HAZE POLLUTION
Life Sciences & Biomedicine
Meteorology & Atmospheric Sciences
Physical Sciences
PM2.5
Science & Technology
SOUTHEAST-ASIA
TRANSPORT
WILDFIRE SMOKE
Publication Status
Published
Coverage Spatial
England
Article Number
649
Date Publish Online
2024-11-02