Impacts of transboundary smoke haze from biomass burning in lower Southeast Asia on air quality in Southern Thailand

Parisa Shokoohinia, Nosha Assareh, Kasemsan Manomaiphiboon*, Chatinai Chusai3, Supachita Kerkkaiwan Kessinee Unapumnuk and Nishit Aman

<p style="text-align:justify;"><strong>Abstract:</strong> This study investigated the impact of transboundary smoke haze from Indonesia on air quality in Southern Thailand, with focus on Songkhla and Phuket provinces. Long-term PM10 (particulate matter whose size is no larger than 10 µm) and visibility data were considered. It was found that elevated PM10 tends to occur in the haze-prone period (May-November) and be more induced in strong El Nino years (here, 1997 and 2015), with PM10 degradation at Songkhla being more pronounced than at Phuket. The seasonality of monthly mean PM10 and VISd is not as apparent as that of the high-end and low-end percentiles respectively, suggesting a high degree of episodicity for the PM10 problem. Elevated PM10 episodes at Songkhla and Phuket were identified by examining daily PM10 time series. Kinematic back-trajectory results simulated for individual elevated PM10 episodes during the haze-prone period (42 and 4 episodes at Songkhla and Phuket, respectively) show that the majority of the episodes (63% at Songkhla and 100% at Phuket) have back-trajectories passing over fire cluster(s) located in Sumatra or Borneo and often associated with the warm (El Nino) or neutral phases of the El Nino-Southern Oscillation or ENSO. This evidently affirms the potential transboundary smoke haze from biomass burning in Indonesia, which induces elevated PM10 in Southern Thailand.  <br /></p><p><strong>Keywords:</strong> Smoke haze, back-trajectory, PM10 exceedance, biomass burning, El Nino.  <br /><br /></p>

Estimation of the value of direct use ecosystem services of Indawgyi Lake Wildlife Sanctuary in Myanmar

Chit Oo Ko, Piyanon Haputta and Shabbir H. Gheewala*

<p style="text-align:justify;"><strong>Abstract:</strong> The study examines the direct use value of ecosystem services in the Indawgyi Lake Wildlife Sanctuary (ILWS) through the dependency of local villagers on ILWS and its recreational value. The values of local villagers’ dependency on forest products were estimated using the market price valuation method. The results show that, in terms of monetary value, estimated tangible services (fishing, timber, fuel-wood, bamboo, water supply, non-timber forest products, and charcoal) are 4.68 million USD per year. Travel cost method was applied to calculate the recreation value of ILWS (i.e. the total consumer surplus of ILWS visitors). The estimated consumer surplus or per trip per visitor is 127 USD, and the total consumer surplus is 56.23 million USD per year. Besides, income, money spent during the trip (travel cost), gender and age were significantly related to the number of trips to ILWS. By combining the value of tangible services and intangible recreation, the estimated total direct use value of ILWS is 60.91 million USD per year. The results of this study can be useful in developing the lake’s management and conservation programs. <br /></p><p><strong>Keywords:</strong> Ecosystem services, Indawgyi Lake Wildlife Sanctuary (ILWS), direct use, valuation, travel cost. <br /></p>