Agricultural Land Use Planning on Sustained Basis Using Landform and Land Evaluation Approach with Geospatial Analysis (a case study in East Barito District, Central Kalimantan Province)

Abstract

Spatial planning for agricultural land use is required since the region with its land resource has an opportunity to be opened and cultivated. On the other side, balanced environment should be maintained in order to achieve sustainability for future use. Land resources information can then be used as basic information and prerequisite for analysis and evaluation in planning process. Because of the lack of data, this study was conducted to generate and provide land resource information. Landform approach using raster surface analysis and slope classification derived from digital elevation model (DEM) was then used to determine agricultural land regions. Procedure of land suitability evaluation in addition to geographic information system (GIS) technology were applied to define specific kind of use for lands. In the case of East Barito as study areas, mainly on the basis of landform analysis, the region can be classified into 6 slope classes i.e. <3%; 3-8%; 9-15%; 16-25%; 26-40%; dan >40%. The result of land suitability evaluation integrated into GIS environment establish that arable lands is still available with total area of 226,211 hectare (59.11%) of total study areas. Furthermore, the region can then be delineated for group of commodities involving food crops, estate crops, and forest as well with each total area 62,291 hectares (17.96%), 183,107 hectares (52.78%) and 101,513 hectares (29.26%), respectively. Several restrictive factors that should be considered include slopping lands and peat depth. Any appropriate and specific programs for agricultural development can then be formulated in land use planning process.