An analysis of the built-up expansion in the agricultural region of the Teluk Banten coast, Indonesia, with special reference to Kasemen, Kramatwatu and Pontang Districts

The development of the built up area in the Indonesian coastal region had proceeded at a pace that had given rise to some serious concerns particularly in relation to land conversion. Some of these had to do with fertile irrigated agricultural land being rather indiscriminately converted to residential, industrial and infrastructure uses, a situation which if allowed to persist will jeopardise Indonesia’s agrofood production. This paper seeks to drive home this urgent point by highlighting the case of the conversion of agricultural buffer lands in the coastal areas of Banten Bay. Applying the techniques of spatial analysis integrated with geographic information system it provides a telling picture of the level and pattern of farmland conversion over the past two decades (1970 to 2008), thanks to the timely availability of sophisticated sources of spatial data such as the AMS , RBI94, and Land Cover Map 2003. The spatial data had been validated by using the result of image interpretation Path / Row: 131/064 in the year following the recording of LANDSAT 1976, LANDSAT 5 TM 1995, LANDSAT 7 ETM + 2000. Visualization results were obtained by using topographic maps / Map RBI (RBI Indonesia) BAKOSURTANAL and the administrative map of Serang, in particular, regarding the three coastal districts.