Fire Smoke And Haze

This publication, a joint effort of ADB and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), brings together the current knowledge about land and forest fires, examines their causes and impacts with particular reference to Southeast Asia, and suggests what could happen in the future.

From September to November of 1997, raging fires in Indonesia pumped enough smoke into the air to blanket the entire region in haze, reaching as far north as southern Thailand and the Philippines, with Malaysia and Singapore being particularly affected. This book conservatively assesses the damage at US $4.5 billion, more than the Exxon Valdez oil spill and India's Bhopal chemical spill combined. It looks at the causes of the fires, the physical damages that resulted, and their effects on heath, industrial production, and tourism, among others.

This book is a collection of insights from experts of various fields, and will entail discussions of the recurring haze problem in Southeast Asia.It discusses multiple aspects of the haze problem. What is the cause of the haze? Who are the perpetrators and victims? What are the impacts and costs of the haze? Why has the haze problem persisted for decades? Are there prospects of resolving the pollution? How should we analyze the issue? Which solutions are more or less effective than others? How can we involve the stakeholders? The book provides a wide range of views on the haze problem. Written in a simple and accessible manner, this book allows the readers to easily access across different fields and develop a deeper understanding of the haze.

This state-of-knowledge review about the effects of fire on air quality can assist land, fire, and air resource managers with fire and smoke planning, and their efforts to explain to others the science behind fire-related program policies and practices to improve air quality. Chapter topics include air quality regulations and fire; characterization of emissions from fire; the transport, dispersion, and modeling of fire emissions; atmospheric and plume chemistry; air quality impacts of fire; social consequences of air quality impacts; and recommendations for future research.

The fires and resulting air pollution which afflicted Southeast Asia in 1997 and 1998 were a major environmental disaster affecting the livelihood and health of the people of the region, destroying forest and wildlife resources, releasing greenhouse gases and having serious implications for the rich biodiversity of the islands of Borneo and Sumatra. Individual chapters have been contributed by international experts and cover a range of issues. The relation of the El Niño effect to droughts and fires is discussed and the history of fires in the region is outlined. Although the fires were associated with long periods of drought, in most cases they had human causes, and the land and forest management policies responsible for them are also identified. Another chapter describes the important role remote sensing played in monitoring and locating the fires and haze. Other contributions are concerned with the chemistry of haze, the long-range transport of pollutants and their modelling, the effects on forest ecosystems, and the implications for global climate change. Health impacts of the air pollution are discussed and the costs in economic terms are analysed. The inability of the Indonesian government to control the fires, the public responses to pollution problems and efforts at international co-operation are also discussed, as is the portrayal of the issues in the media.