Heinrich Rakuasa, Indonesian master student of the Faculty of Geology and Geography of Tomsk State University, created maps and analytical materials on environmental management in the Moluccas in Indonesia. He used geoinformation technology and machine learning (AI) in his study. This is the first study on the archipelago that considers the ecological situation over the past 30 years. Maps allow assessing the risks of floods, landslides and other natural threats.
The work was carried out as part of a master’s thesis (Digital Technologies in Geography) supervised by Vadim Khromykh, Head of the Department of Geography, TSU.
Heinrich Rakuasa was born in the Moluccas. Having entered the master course at TSU, he decided to study in more detail the important environmental problems of his region.
— I personally saw a change in landscapes – deforestation, expansion of nickel mining and urban development, which affects ecosystems and human safety through increased risks of floods and landslides, – said Heinrich Rakuasa. – Besides, there are few comprehensive studies in this region that combine remote sensing data, geographic information systems (GIS) and artificial intelligence, so I wanted to draw up thematic maps and practical recommendations that will help local authorities, urban planners and communities in resource management and disaster risk reduction.
A comprehensive spatio-temporal analysis is GIS-based and uses data fr om international and Indonesian sources. With their help, the author analyzed vegetation, temperature, classified land cover, mapped zones of possible floods and landslides. The study covers the islands of Ambon, Ternate, Obi and Halmahera from 1995 to 2025.
— We studied changes in vegetation cover (deforestation), surface temperatures, flood and landslide risks, and how areas are built up in volcanic hazard zones. The main results show that over 30 years, vegetation has decreased in many territories, while the surface temperature has increased, including under the influence of urbanization and mining activities, – added Heinrich Rakuasa.
According to him, the Moluccas are experiencing an increasingly strong environmental burden: cities are growing, mining is underway, the climate is changing. Therefore, it is important not only to observe changes, but also to be able to predict them using modern methods.
— The developed methodology allows not only analyzing environmental changes in recent years, but also creating forecast maps of expected changes in the Moluccas in the future, – commented Vadim Khromykh, head of the Department of Geography. – AI technologies were actively used in the analysis, for example, controlled classification of space images using the Random Forest (RF) algorithm in the Google Earth Engine (GEE), modeling of spatial distribution using the maximum entropy method (MaxEnt model). Spatial analytics were carried out in ArcGIS Pro. The work was performed using hardware and software in the computer GIS class of the Department of Geography. I am glad that we have such creative graduates. This is exactly what a modern specialist in the field of GeoIT should be. I think if Heinrich continues his postgraduate studies at TSU, he will become a good scientist.
The resulting maps and materials can be useful to authorities, territorial planners, scientists, and anyone involved in sustainable development and disaster risk reduction.
Following the results of the master’s work, Heinrich Rakuasa together with Vadim Khromykh, published several scientific articles in journals included in the Scopus database, and a monograph in English – https://artamedia.co/product/gis-based-spatiotemporal-analysis-for-environmental-management-in-the-maluku-islands-indonesia/.
Heinrich plans to join the postgraduate course in Geoecology. He believes that teachers at TSU are highly professional, so he wants to continue his studies here to dive deeper into science.
For reference: Students from 68 countries study at TSU – more than 3,500 people in total. Of these, 1,192 are citizens of non-CIS countries. The first place in the list of leaders-countries from wh ere students come to study at the oldest Siberian university is Kazakhstan – more than 1,400 people, followed by China – 770 people.