Guideline on Burned Area Mapping and Estimation in Southeast Asia

The Southeast Asian region has long been plagued by large-scale vegetation and peatland fires leading to local and transboundary haze pollution and extensive burned areas, which have necessitated policy responses such as the ASEAN Agreement on Transboundary Haze Pollution (AATHP) and the Second Roadmap to Haze-Free ASEAN 2023-2030 and Second ASEAN Peatland Management Strategy (APMS) 2023-2030.

Accurate and comparable measurement of burned area is essential for effective fire management and sustainable land management practices in the ASEAN region. It provides a foundation for improving tools to map wildfire risk, assessing fuel types and interpreting fire danger levels, there by enabling more informed decision-making, more effective fire prevention, suppression strategies, and enforcement of relevant regulations. Burned areas are currently being mapped in Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand, but here is yet to be and agreed approach to ensure regular and comparable mapping across the ASEAN region.

This guideline is a comprehensive toolkit for identifying and mapping burned area, including chapters on resource needs, data requirements, mapping methodologies, validation, analysis, and reporting. This document is intended to serve as a practical toolkit for policymakers, researchers, and practitioners to develop and enhance burned area mapping and fire management in Southeast Asia. It is hoped that the guideline will contribute to the development of consistent and effective strategies for documenting and mitigating the impacts of wildfires and promoting sustainable land management practices in the region. This includes the restoration of affected land, estimation of carbon emissions, and enforcement of relevant regulations.

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