Development of a spatial decision support system for land use planning (Case study: Jawa Tengah Province, Indonesia)

Abstract

Land resource is finite and scarce but its demand is increasing continuously in line with the changing of population growth, socio-economic and politic conditions. It leads to the dynamic land use changes which arise either accidentally or under control. Such the land use changes may impact the human's ecosystem, either desirable or undesirable. The problem is how to manage the land use change so as to maximize the desirable benefit and to minimize the undesirable impacts. In this case, land use planning is needed in the framework of sustainable development. The study area was Jawa Tengah Province whose complex problems in managing land resource and space. Land use planning is an important and a core element of Spatial Planning. Land use planning is an iterative and continuous process considering multi- criteria, multi-objectives, multi-temporal and multi-stakeholders. In that case, decision-making comes to be a complex and difficult task. Spatial Decision Support System (SDSS) will be an important tool to provide data and information support of land use planning in such a way, so the decision-making will be easier, faster and reliable. In the process of developing SDSS, Geographic Information System, Spatial Database, spatial simulation modeling and interactive graphical user interface were combined and compiled in an integrated and stand alone new system package namely Spatial-based Land Use Planning Support System (SLUPS). SLUPS provides interactive scenarios to simulate land use planning and decision-making. SLUPS was designed and constructed by using Visual Basic 6.0, Map Object 2.2 ActiveX, Arc GIS 9.0, and Microsoft Access. This research was designed to present a conceptual design and a prototype of Spatial-based Land Use Planning Support System. Both objectives were addressed to solve the problems of spatial planning in Jawa Tengah Province, especially in the aspect of land use planning.