Urbanization and Population Change: Banjar Municipality

Abstract

There is a worldwide growing concern that increased concentration of people are moving to cities. There are numerous studies that describe and explain this phenomenon. A limited amount of research focuses on specific autonomous urban environments. Evidence on land use and population density change examines Banjar Municipality, a new autonomous city, in Indonesia. Google Earth Image Series data, an appropriate solution for tracking land use change in smaller geographic areas, is examined between 2006 and 2016. Results show an increase in urban area from 13.49 to 15.41% while agricultural land decreased from 71.22 to 69.87%. Positive observational highlights indicate urban forested areas are minimally impacted by the Municipality’s city-wide development. A small percentage of the surrounding water bodies increased as a result of the local authority building a new artificial lake. Interestingly, urban area changes mostly have occurred throughout the districts of Banjar and Langensari, not in Pataruman, which has experienced the highest increase in population in the latter decade. The underlying research focalizes on the constraints to facilitate land use within an urban corridor setting.