Analyzing Urban Population Growth in the Towns of Non-urban Regions in Java, Indonesia, Using Spatial Analysis

Abstract

As a high densely populated region, urbanization process in Java has become a regional process as the process is also characterized by the growing out of the urban areas outside the cities’ administrative limit, as well as the rapid growth of urban population in the non-urban regions, known as kabupaten. This process is also indicated by the growth of many towns as urban areas in the territory of kabupaten. In fact, the growth of urban population in kabupaten has become the main contributors of urban population growth in Java in the last decades. By analysing the spatial growth of urbanized villages that form the towns in three kabupaten in the north coast of Central Java, this study aims to examine the characteristics of urban population growth in non-statutory towns in non-urban regions in order to deepening the understanding on urbanization process in high densely populated regions like Java. Urban population growth in the non-urban regions is analysed through a time series analysis on the growth of the towns in the territory of the kabupaten and the growth of the populations who live in the towns along the observation periods. The results show that urban population growth in non-urban region is influenced by rural-to-urbanized villages’ transformation process that triggers three forms of towns’ spatial formations for their growth and development: newly small-town formation process, growing process, and merging process. Therefore, this study suggests better management on the villages’ transformation proces, to have better management of regional urbanization in the future.