Abstract

Over the past 30 years, both banks of the Strait of Malacca have experienced rapid economic growth and urbanization. Because of the difficulties in obtaining multi-phase urban land information over a large tropical area, spatial-temporal evolution analysis of the urban land areas in this region has been restricted. In this study, we developed an object-oriented retro-updating method for the rapid extraction of multi-phase urban land information to conduct a comprehensive study of the urban land area changes and to investigate the regional differentiation of both banks of the Strait of Malacca from 1990 to 2018, using grid analysis, zoning statistics, and gradient-direction analysis. The results revealed that from 1990 to 2018, the urban land areas on the eastern and western banks of the Strait of Malacca had increased by 1.51 times and 1.76 times, respectively, and in 2018, the urban land areas on the eastern bank were approximately four times greater than those on the western bank. The urban land areas on the eastern bank exhibit clusters centered around large cities and small strips along roads. Furthermore, the development of the urban land on the western bank was slow. As of 2018, the low development intensity areas on the western bank accounted for 98.73% of the total area, with only Medan achieving a higher development intensity. The development speeds of both banks followed the same zonal law (i.e., decreasing with increasing distance from the coastline). In addition, the urban land areas on both banks were mainly distributed within 60 km of the coast. Over the past 30 years, in decreasing order of their expansion scales, the major ports on both banks of the strait are Port Kelang, the Port of Singapore, Malacca Port, Penang Port, Belawan Port, and Dumai Port. In addition to the Port of Singapore and Dumai Port, which are in leapfrog expansion mode, the other ports exhibit edge-expansion patterns. Finally, investigation of the factors influencing the intensity of the urban land development revealed that natural resource conditions, economic and industrial structures, port development, and government policies all have caused the development of the western bank to lag behind that of the eastern bank.

Highlights

  • The Strait of Malacca is located between the Malay Peninsula and Indonesian Sumatra

  • (4) We investigated the spatial-temporal characteristics of the land use and the influence scope of the major ports using gradient direction analysis

  • In 1990, the lower development intensity area of the western bank accounted for 99.37% of the total area; by 2018, the proportion of the lower development intensity area had decreased to 98.73%

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Summary

Introduction

The Strait of Malacca is located between the Malay Peninsula and Indonesian Sumatra. It is the key link between the Pacific Ocean and the Indian Ocean and it is the crossroads between Asia and Oceania. From economic and strategic perspectives, the Strait of Malacca is one of the most important shipping lanes in the world. Because of the economic development, population growth, and other factors, the urban land on both banks of the Strait of Malacca is constantly changing. Few studies have been conducted on the changes in the urban land area in this region. The timely and accurate detection of urban expansion on both banks of the strait is urgently needed. The results could help decision makers clarify the process of urban construction and the regional differences to better carry out urban planning, environmental protection, resource allocation, and other projects

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