Detecting Haze Hotspots Through Network Modeling

Haze is an atmospheric phenomenon that occurs mostly in developing countries and is caused by tiny micro-gaseous air pollutants that affect human health, the economy, and the environment. The transboundary haze, or polluted air scattered in the atmosphere from a source location, impacts the livelihoods of the human population, lasting days to weeks. To prevent massive disruption caused by haze, it is thus important to detect the probable affected locations by knowing the source location of the pollutants in the atmosphere. Based on the idea of the Epidemiological Triangle (ET), we proposed a contact triangle named Haze Contact Triangle (HCT) be formulated, representing the interdependency of the environment, source locations, and affected locations. Therefore, this paper aims to present a proof-of-concept that in detecting the affected locations, a bipartite network model can be used for this purpose. The relationship between two nodes which are the source location and the affected location of the haze was clearly defined and quantified through a weighted link. The quantification of the two nodes is based on the environmental properties of the locations so that the dispersion of haze from the source location to the affected location can be formulated. The weight of the link between the two nodes was quantified using parameters such as the high temperature, wind directions, distance between the affected location from the source location, and the rates of smouldering fire in the formulation of the Haze Contact Strength (HCS). The formulated network is then sent through a web-based searching algorithm resulting in ranked locations. Therefore, the result is an indication of a haze hotspot, which may then be used to improve the efficacy of controlling the haze situation locally.