Analisis Perubahan Gunatanah di Daerah Barat Daya, Pulau Pinang

Land Use Change Analysis of South West District, Pulau Pinang

Abstract

Pulau Pinang has limited sources of land, and has been undergoing a rapid land use changes through agriculture, settlement, urbanisation and many more human activities. Land use is one of the important factors that affect the quantity and quality of water in a river basin. Assessing the impact of changes in land use are fundamental to sustainable development and an essential component of river basin and water resource management. The main objective of this study was to analyze changes of land use in 1974, 1984, 2004 and 2012 for 19 catchments in the South West District of Pulau Pinang. Based on the data of land use, landscape components are classified into five categories namely built-up area, forest, agriculture, mining and other land use. Landscape metrics analysis were used to assess the spatial pattern of landscape in this study in terms of class and landscape for the determination of Shannon Diversity Index (SHDI), Number of Patch (NumP), Edge Density (ED), and Total Edge (TE) and which land uses were dominant and the impact of the spreading for a period of 38 years. The result showed the significant increased of mainly three land uses, which is forestry, build area and agriculture, while based on SHDI, the value was increasing from 1974 to 2012. This situation shows that the higher the HDI value of a basin, then the composition of the land use is also higher. This is because, the land use pattern is illustrated by the growing number of patches and the diversity of land use activities within a river basin. Overall, the statistical landscape metrics analysis was found that there were significant changes in land uses of 19 river basins for a period of 38 years.