Spatio-Temporal Analysis of Land Use Changes in the Makassar Region Using GIS

The impact of population growth on urban sprawl in many major cities in Indonesia has become a major issue in recent years. As the fifth fastest growing city in Indonesia, land use changes in the Makassar region have shown remarkable changes as the consequences of urban expansion during the last 15 years. This paper presents a development of land use maps from the available topographic maps. Based on the developed land use maps,details of land use changes have been simulated based on 50m grid-mesh scale to characterize land use transition in the Makassar region over the last 15 years. Land uses for the period of 1997-2012 have shown important changes, urban surface has grown up from 4,805 to 8,098 hectares which represents almost twice the urban expansion of a 15 years period. It is found that about 32% of agricultural fields and 41% of garden fields of 1997 are converted into urban area in 2012. The increasing phenomenon of urban area from 1997 to 2012 has leaded to the existence of the land covers of fishpond (13.5%) and swamp field (2.1%) in 2012. Moreover, about 79% of mangrove forests in Tallo River Area are converted into fishponds. This study has successfully pointed out the importance of understanding the dynamic of land use changes of the Makassar region in a spatial and temporal way to the protection of the environment.