VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

The Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) has identified 5,807 lakes, including natural lakes and artificial lakes, throughout Indonesia.

"The lake book team has identified 5,807 lakes spread across Indonesia's islands, with a total area covering 586,871.64 hectares," Aan Dianto, a team member, stated during a webinar on "The Indonesia Lake Database and the launch of the “Indonesian Lakes Identification Book: The Strategic Role of the Availability of Basic Data on Lakes in Indonesia" here on Thursday.

The new book series on Indonesian Lakes was compiled by 19 personnel of LIPI.

The number of lakes in the country increased significantly, from 1,575 comprising 840 large lakes and 735 small lakes (in-situ) recorded earlier. The National Development Planning Agency (Bappenas) in 2016 recorded that the country's lakes covered an area totaling 491,724 hectares (ha).

"If we illustrate, then the total area (of the lakes) is slightly larger than the 'land area' of Thailand reaching 513,120 hectares," Dianto explained.

The LIPI Limnology Research Center was behind the latest identification of Indonesian lakes.

Of the total 5,807 lakes, 1,022 are natural lakes, 1,314 are artificial lakes, and 3,471 had yet to be identified as natural or artificial lakes.

"They are yet unidentified since we cannot categorize them as natural or artificial lakes," he pointed out.

Of the 5,807 lakes, 2,038 lakes have been named, while 3,769 are unnamed.

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The size-wise classification shows 1,797 very small lakes, 3,949 small lakes, 51 medium-sized lakes, nine large-sized lakes, and one very large lake, specifically Lake Toba in North Sumatra Province.

A lake is termed as very large if its area is over 100 thousand ha, while a large lake has an area of between 10 thousand and 100 thousand ha, medium-sized lake between one thousand and 10 thousand ha, small lake between one and one thousand ha, and very small lake covers less than one ha.

The Indonesian Lake Identification Book comprises several series: the Sumatra Series, Java-Bali-Nusa Tenggara Series, Sulawesi Series, Maluku-Papua Series, and Kalimantan Series.

In the Sumatra Series, there are 382 lakes in Sumatra comprising 81 natural lakes, 31 artificial lakes, and 270 unidentified lakes.

In the Java-Bali-Nusa Tenggara Series, LIPI has identified 1,990 lakes including 325 natural lakes, 845 artificial lakes, and 820 unidentified lakes.

In the Sulawesi Series, 472 lakes are identified comprising 94 natural lakes, 11 artificial lakes, and 267 unidentified lakes.

In the Maluku-Papua Series, there are 618 lakes constituting 93 natural lakes and 525 unidentified lakes.

Of the 2,345 lakes in the Kalimantan Series, some 429 are natural lakes, 426 are artificial lakes, and 1,490 are unidentified lakes. (Antaranews)