Spatiotemporal Variations of Urban Spatial Dispersion and Its Vegetation Degradation in Joglosemar’s Urban Growth Corridors, Indonesia

Abstract

ABSTRACT Indonesia has several expanding metropolitan regions, such as the Joglosemar Urban Region. The Joglosemar Urban Region includes three major urban growth centres – the Semarang Metropolitan Region (SMR), the Surakarta Urban Region (SUR), and the Yogyakarta Urban Region (YUR) with three urban growth corridors connecting them. Urban growth corridors cover areas crossed by the main road network linking urban growth centres. Rapid and uncontrolled urban development can endanger environmental sustainability along the corridors. This study compares the three urban growth corridors within the Joglosemar Urban Region – the SMR-SUR, the SUR-YUR, and the SMR-YUR. It examines the spatiotemporal variations of urban compactness and urban vegetation degradation. This study uses Landsat Satellite Imagery from 2001, 2008, 2015, and 2022. The index-based calculation was employed to obtain the built-up area change, urban compactness, and vegetation degradation. The most dispersed urban areas observed had the greatest vegetation degradation. Among the three urban growth corridors, the SMR-SUR corridor recorded the highest vegetation degradation of −0.21, with an increase in compactness index of 0.02. Vegetation greenness is significantly reduced along urban expansion corridors with high spatial dispersion. Our assessment offers new insight to inform the government in enacting policy changes to control urban growth and its sustainability.