The Distribution and Sufficiency of Urban Forest Area as the Carbon dioxide Sink using Geographic Information System and Remote Sensing Application in Pematangsiantar, the Province of North Sumatera

Abstract

Pematangsiantar city as central of government has been facing dynamical change in many aspects such as technological, economical, social-cultural and demographical. The condition lead to open space conversion into industrial area, settlements, offices and other economic activities and increase vehicle numbers. The land conversion and high number of vehicle have increased carbon dioxide (CO2) emission. It is predicted that the pollution may decrease the quality of life environment in Pematangsiantar. One of the effective and efficient solutions to overcome this impact is to implement concept of urban forest in land-use plan. The aim of this study is to estimate the emission of CO2 and analyze the distribution and sufficiency of urban forest in Pematangsiantar during 2009. Hopefully, the result of this study can give information and input to the Local Government of Pematangsiantar and give alternative of solution in the urban forest development. It also gives an overview about the distribution of urban forest an each subdistrict in Pematangsiantar. This study was conducted in Pematangsiantar, the province of North Sumatera during July to September 2009. The data that collected consisted of the consumption level of fuel (oil and gas), total and kind of cattle, width of rice field area and types of land cover of Pematangsiantar. The result shows the emission of CO2 from energy is 261,285 Gg CO2/year, emission from cattle is 0,301 Gg CO2/year and emission from farm is 1,144 Gg CO2/year. The total of emission is 262,73 Gg CO2/year. Based on the landsat image and field condition , Pematangsiantar can be classified into 8 types of land cover. The area of urban forest (high vegetation) numbers is 1.161,45 ha (14,49%), built area is 2.384,64 ha (29,75%), farming area (rice field, dry farm, plantation, bushes, grass land) is 3.412,53 ha (42,57%) and area for infrastructure building 1.057,68 ha (13,16%). The need of urban forest area in Pematangsiantar can be estimated through CO2 absorption approach. Based on CO2 emission calculation, Pematangsiantar city needs 4.509,8 ha (56,26%) for urban forest while the available urban forest in Pematangsiantar is only 1.161,45 ha. Due to emission of CO2 in Pematangsiantar, the city needs more area for urban forest of about 3.345 ha more.