Malaysian Meteorological Department (MMD) in supporting the effort to reduce the impact of forest fire, especially on the peat land, has introduced various early warning information and tools, such as seasonal weather forecast, satellite hot spot monitoring, report of non-raining days, report of weather condition during severe haze episodes as well as FDRS, to the relevant disaster management agencies as well as the public.
FDRS, as one of the fire management tools, has been continuously run and displayed daily on the MMD official web page since 2003. The 12th ASEAN Ministerial Meeting On The Environment, 13 October 2010 conveyed its recognition on the usefulness of the FDRS for monitoring fire danger in the ASEAN region. MMD was requested to look into the possibility of improving the existing products of FDRS.
Thus, MMD has identified the pilot project of using the Google map to overlay peat soil area and product of FDRS in Selangor state. This would help in enhancing identification of the location of fire danger areas. The result of the pilot project was presented during the 13th ASEAN Ministerial Meeting On The Environment, 16-18 October 2011.
Currently, MMD has expanded the pilot project to the whole country. The products are now available in MMD web site. MMD would endeavor to improve its early warning system for forest fire, such as using NWP products for fire danger forecasting and upgrading to open source FDRS, if available.
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