During rainy season, canal blocking in Jajangkit area adequately influenced the
dynamics of peatland GWL between 200 and 400 m away laterally from the canal.
Meanwhile, in the unblocked area, Ulin, the canal water level could only affect GWL
around 100 m away from the canal. Finally, during dry season, there was no
correlation between canal surface water and GWL.
This investigative study indicates that canal blocking shows positive impacts and
positive linear correlation with the surface water level and groundwater level, even
though the impact scale was quite limited considering the immense hydrological
disturbance of the study site. Hence, there is a need to conduct further detailed study
to measure the impacts of canal blocking on the hydrological dynamics by
expanding the spatial and temporal parameters.
20.5 Conclusion
Hydrological restoration activities to restore drained peatland in Indonesia have been
significantly progressing in terms of initiatives and scale in recent years. The spirit
and enthusiasm from the stakeholders conducting hydrological peatland management constitute a good sign of effective effort to scale down the peatland degradation
rate resulted from excessive artificial drainage canals constructed in peatland ecosystem. Water management interventions and measures such as canal blocking and
canal backfilling with many types of design and technical specifications have been
practiced in many peatland areas in Indonesia.
Despite the said hydrological restoration activities implemented, many challenges
remain unaddressed in terms of planning, technical intervention, monitoring and
evaluation as well as the evaluation of successful degree of intervention applied.
A good planning is an important prerequisite for better hydrological peatland
management. A good plan requires accurate and up-to-date data and information as
well as cutting edge technologies to collect, process, and analyze the acquired data
and information. In addition, data needed are not only single point but also series of
temporal data to reflect the spatial and temporal dynamics of parameters measured.
All data and information need to be collected, analyzed, and presented in the proper
scientific and technical ways. The big challenge in producing a good plan at the
moment is the lack of complete and up-to-date data and information due to budget
constraints, difficulty in field access, lack of human capacity, and high cost as well as
inaccessibility of advance remote sensing technologies.
Furthermore, the physical issues of over-drained peatland such as hydrophobic
and irreversible sinking constitute physical challenges that are difficult to address at
the moment. Improving peatland hydrological properties through rewetting program
may be hampered by the hydrophobic issues as they affect the water retention in
peatland.
Technical challenges comprise the appropriateness of water management designs
and their technical specifications. Additionally, there are issues concerning the
durability of the design used, the availability of required materials, accessibility of
20 Hydrological Management Practices
589
dynamics of peatland GWL between 200 and 400 m away laterally from the canal.
Meanwhile, in the unblocked area, Ulin, the canal water level could only affect GWL
around 100 m away from the canal. Finally, during dry season, there was no
correlation between canal surface water and GWL.
This investigative study indicates that canal blocking shows positive impacts and
positive linear correlation with the surface water level and groundwater level, even
though the impact scale was quite limited considering the immense hydrological
disturbance of the study site. Hence, there is a need to conduct further detailed study
to measure the impacts of canal blocking on the hydrological dynamics by
expanding the spatial and temporal parameters.
20.5 Conclusion
Hydrological restoration activities to restore drained peatland in Indonesia have been
significantly progressing in terms of initiatives and scale in recent years. The spirit
and enthusiasm from the stakeholders conducting hydrological peatland management constitute a good sign of effective effort to scale down the peatland degradation
rate resulted from excessive artificial drainage canals constructed in peatland ecosystem. Water management interventions and measures such as canal blocking and
canal backfilling with many types of design and technical specifications have been
practiced in many peatland areas in Indonesia.
Despite the said hydrological restoration activities implemented, many challenges
remain unaddressed in terms of planning, technical intervention, monitoring and
evaluation as well as the evaluation of successful degree of intervention applied.
A good planning is an important prerequisite for better hydrological peatland
management. A good plan requires accurate and up-to-date data and information as
well as cutting edge technologies to collect, process, and analyze the acquired data
and information. In addition, data needed are not only single point but also series of
temporal data to reflect the spatial and temporal dynamics of parameters measured.
All data and information need to be collected, analyzed, and presented in the proper
scientific and technical ways. The big challenge in producing a good plan at the
moment is the lack of complete and up-to-date data and information due to budget
constraints, difficulty in field access, lack of human capacity, and high cost as well as
inaccessibility of advance remote sensing technologies.
Furthermore, the physical issues of over-drained peatland such as hydrophobic
and irreversible sinking constitute physical challenges that are difficult to address at
the moment. Improving peatland hydrological properties through rewetting program
may be hampered by the hydrophobic issues as they affect the water retention in
peatland.
Technical challenges comprise the appropriateness of water management designs
and their technical specifications. Additionally, there are issues concerning the
durability of the design used, the availability of required materials, accessibility of
20 Hydrological Management Practices
589