The Impacts of Land Use Changes on Ecological Connectivity in the Makassar City

As the fifth fastest growing city in Indonesia, land use changes in the Makassar region have shown remarkable changes as consequences of urban expansion during the last 15 years. Therefore, environmental management and careful strategic spatial planning in landscape ecological network is crucial when aiming for sustainable development. This paper presents an evaluation of land use change based on 50m grid-mesh scale to characterize land use transition in the Makassar region over the last 15 years. The increasing phenomenon of urban area from 1997 to 2012 have caused the land cover of fishpond (13.5%) and swamp field (2.1%) of the Makassar region existed in 2012. Moreover, about 79% of mangrove forest in Tallo River Area is converted into fishpond. The impacts of land use changes from 1997 to 2012 on the landscape ecological connectivity in the Makassar region are evaluated by using Geographic Information System (GIS). The results have effective performance in identifying the vital ecological areas and connectivity prior to development plan in areas. This study has successfully pointed out the importance of understanding the land use changes of the Makassar region to the protection of environment.