International Journal of
eISSN: 2576-4454
Submit manuscript...
Review Article Volume 10 Issue 4
When the water table falls, the peatland becomes fuel: a reflective commentary on hydrology and catastrophic forest fire
Chee Kong Yap
Received: August 20, 2026 | Published: September 4, 2026
Citation: Yap CK. When the water table falls, the peatland becomes fuel: a reflective commentary on hydrology and catastrophic forest fire. Int J Hydro. 2026;10(4):123-127. DOI: 10.15406/ijh.2026.10.00436
Abstract
The water table is the principal ecological boundary separating protected, waterlogged peat from dry and combustible organic material. In an intact tropical peatland, groundwater remains close to the surface, limiting oxygen penetration, slowing decomposition, and maintaining the high moisture content that prevents peat from sustaining combustion. Drainage canals, prolonged drought, deforestation, and excessive water extraction lower this boundary. Consequently, a progressively thicker layer of peat becomes aerated, decomposed, cracked, and vulnerable to ignition. A falling water table does not itself create the initial flame. Human activity, burning vegetation, lightning, machinery, or glowing woody material usually supplies the ignition. Nevertheless, hydrological degradation determines whether that ignition is extinguished or develops into an extensive, persistent, and smoke producing fire. The objective of this reflective commentary is to explain how water table decline transforms peat from a protected carbon store into a three-dimensional fuel body and thereby increases the probability, depth, persistence, spatial extent, and environmental severity of peatland and forest fires. It also connects this hydrological process with recurring haze in Indonesia and the wider Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) region. This commentary argues that fire prevention must begin before smoke or flames appear through continuous groundwater monitoring, drainage and canal management, peatland rewetting, native vegetation recovery, and land uses compatible with wet peat conditions.
Keywords: drainage, forest fire, groundwater, peatland hydrology, rewetting, smouldering combustion, tropical peat
©2026 Yap. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and build upon your work non-commercially.