Identifying Potential Areas for Future Urban Development Using Gis-Based Multi Criteria Evaluation Technique

Abstract

Malaysia likes other Asian countries has experienced rapid urbanizationdue to economic development, industrialization, massive migrations aswell as natural population growth. This expansion particularly theunplanned has impacted negatively on farming activities and creates hugepressure arable agriculture areas. Thus, identification of potentialsites for future urban development should become important issues inensuring sustainable development. Therefore, the aim of this paper is touse GIS based multi criteria evaluation technique to identify potentialareas for urban development at Balik Pulau, Penang. The study quantifiedspatial and temporal dynamics of land use/cover changes and identifiedpotential areas for future development. The results indicated that largeproportions of agriculture areas had been converted to built-up areas..Urban areas increased from 1793.2 ha in 1992 to 3235.4 ha in 2002 andbecame 3987.8 ha in 2010. On the other hand agricultural land decreasedfrom 6171.3ha (53.8%) in 1992 to 3883 ha (35. %) in 2010. The study,then, produced map showing potential sites for future urban development.The findings also indicated built-up areas would continue to encroachinto flat available agricultural land which will be diminished if norestriction imposed. Thus, the information obtained from this study isuseful for planners and decision makers in controlling agriculture areasand guiding new development properly.