Determination of recharge areas to optimize the function of urban protected areas on a small island

Abstract

The increase in population and economy as a whole has an impact on the urban and regional growth patterns, through the development of settlements, infrastructure, and other supporting activities. The city on the small island also experiences the same pattern, particularly in the city appointed as one of the national strategic areas. Uncontrolled and sporadic growth pattern will cause serious effect on environmental degradation. Sabang, nationally announced as a strategic special zone, located on a small island with land-use dominated by forests, natural topography, mountains, and hills. One effort to maintain the environment due to the development growth is to optimize the catchment areas. The purpose of this study is to determine the recharge area, which would be a consideration in planning the spatial pattern of Sabang. The factors reviewed in this study are rainfall, slope, land-use, and soil conditions. Scoring techniques were used to measure the value of these factors. Furthermore, the Geographic Information System (GIS) was used to identify the recharge areas and to overlay both raster and vector data. The result shows that the potential area as the recharge areas is 63.8% of Sabang (7,873.67 ha), which includes forest areas, mangrove beaches, housing, green open spaces, terrestrial nature reserves, mixed plantations, industrial estates, tourism, trade and services, landslide-prone areas, river areas and beaches, and reservoirs. The finding indicates that there is the need to review the land-use plan to be ecologically compatible, particularly in the so-called eco-sensitive zones where the recharge areas are necessary.