Water management is an important aspect of hydrological restoration and fire prevention in tropical peatland because the availability of water is not well distributed in the dry and rainy seasons. The degraded peatlands with massive canalization are very vulnerable against peat fire especially in the dry season. A pilot project for water management was conducted at Tanjung Leban, Bengkalis Regency, Riau Province with the purpose not only for hydrological restoration but also for fire prevention. In 2013, 2014, and 2015, the big peat fires occurred at Tanjung Leban and many peatland areas in Riau which caused a haze disaster. Peatland restoration and peat fire prevention efforts have been continuously undertaken by Peatland Restoration Agency and stakeholders at Tanjung Leban and many peatland areas in Riau. The rewetting, revegetation, and revitalization of livelihood were the integrated approaches that were carried out to support the peatland restoration. The aim of this research is to monitor the hydrological condition as the impact of rewetting activities using canal blocking at Tanjung Leban. Forty dip wells in four transects and an automatic rainfall record equipment were set up in the research area to monitor the groundwater level (GWL) and the rainfall event as the impact of rewetting activities. The result shows that the rewetting activity using canal blocking has a significant impact on the rewetting effort so that the risk of peat fire can be minimized. The historical evidence shows that the peatland restoration has been improving after the peatland areas were kept in always wet conditions.

The Peatland Restoration Agency of the Republic of Indonesia (BRG-RI), an agency that is mandated to restore 2 million hectares of degraded peatland by 2020, has developed a 3-R approach towards tackling the problem based on the program of rewetting, revegetation, and revitalization of livelihood for the peatlands restoration in Indonesia. The Rewetting program that aims to rehabilitate hydrologically a peatland to a near natural state is carried out by canal blocking, canal backfilling, and construction of deep wells. To know the progress of the restoration activities by BRG, it is very important to understand the effectiveness of canal blocking on rewetting of the tropical peatland. The effectiveness of canal blocking was investigated through the monitoring of groundwater level (GWL) fluctuation around the canal block. This study was carried out at a canal block that is located at the peatland of Sungai Tohor Village, Kepulauan Meranti Regency, Riau Province. For monitoring of GWL fluctuation as the impact of canal blocking, five dipwells were set at the peatland that are perpendicular to the canal with the distance of 20 m, 70 m, 120 m, 170 m, and 220 m respectively. The results of this study show that the impact of canal blocking could raise the water table in the peatland at the radius of about 170 m from the canal. The radius impact of the re-wetting might be bigger or smaller, that strongly depends on the hydrotopography situation of the area.

The annual peat fire disasters have suffered human life, deteriorated peat land ecosystems, and caused severe economic losses in Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei, and Singapore during a period of 2014-2016. The objective of this study is to investigate to what extent the weather modification technology (WMT) may play its roles in increasing the precipitation rates in order to mitigate the peat fires disaster in Bengkalis, Riau Province, Indonesia. The study obtained the precipitation rates data from the tropical rainfall measuring mission (TRMM) satellite during the period of 2014, 2015 and 2016. The data then statistically analyzed using the Grads software package. While the process of WMT at the designated research location was evaluated together between the Artificial Rain Unit of BPPT (Agency for the Assessment and Application Technology), and the Engineering Faculty, University of Riau, 2016. The research showed that the WMT increased the rainfall rates during the dry season within the study area by 8% (520.7 mm to 557 mm) in the 3 months period (July 14 -October 6, 2016), and reducing significantly hotspots by 88.6% from 6.725 in 2014 to 770 in 2016. Hence, it confirmed that the application of technical WMT procedures may increase precipitation rates and reduce the number of hot spots in Bengkalis.

Ecological restoration of peatlands leads to the destruction of peatland ecosystems caused by human activities, whether intentional or not. As a result of the damage caused various kinds of problems such as land fires. Tanjung Leban Village is one of the villages with a fairly high rate of fire, especially in 2012, 2013, and 2015. Many burnt lands are left unused, which in turn becomes a fire-prone area due to the lack of control over the land. In response to this, it is necessary to carry out peatland ecological restoration activities in Tanjung Leban Village through revegetation activities. Implementation of activities with the mentoring method through village facilitators stationed in Tanjung Leban Village. The implementation process begins with socialization, which continues with group formation, procurement of seeds, land clearing, and planting. The implementation of this revegetation focuses on the participation of the community who are members of the Peat Care Community Group (MPG) in Tanjung Leban Village. This activity was carried out in the community area (group members) with an area of 14.7 ha and 14,381 plants. The number of plants is divided into 2 categories, namely natural wood species and fruit plants.