Tracking Environmental Quality of Indonesia’s New Capital City and its Surrounding Area

Abstract

Environmental degradation is often a trade-off from development, and this is a challenge in the development of Indonesia’s new capital city. This study aims to provide historical information on environmental quality in the new capital city and its surroundings to broaden understanding of the development of a new capital city in realizing the forest city concept. Study review, descriptive statistics, and spatial analysis were used in this study. NDVI from MODIS imagery was processed using Google Earth Engine. Spatial data from various sources were overlayed and analyzed to identify deforestation, forest cover, forest degradation. The result of this study clearly shows that Kutai Kartanegara, Paser, and Kutai Barat Regencies will become an environmental buffer for Indonesia’s new capital city with dynamic environmental quality. There was a decreasing trend in deforestation, while the trend of the increase occurred in Kutai Barat and Kutai Kartanegara. Paser and Kutai Barat, which have the highest percentage of forest cover > 40%. The forest degradation only occurred in three regencies, Kutai Kartanegara is the highest. The ratio of forest biomass potential to the area: Kutai Kartanegara > Paser > Kutai Barat > Penajam Paser Utara > Balikpapan.