Land Use, Built-Up, and Vegetation Index in North Halmahera Regency through Spatio-Temporal Analysis

Abstract

Monitoring land use, buildings, and vegetation index of ecotourism areas in North Halmahera can support planning space utilization in urban areas for tourist areas as the concept of land use management and urban planning. This study offers ideas for analyzing the distribution of buildings, vegetation index, and land use in the mangrove ecotourism area of North Halmahera Regency using the spatio-temporal analysis method. The spatio-temporal analysis method comprises several stages: data selection, preprocessing, data integration, spatial analysis, temporal analysis, spatio-temporal analysis, data visualization, interpretation and understanding, and data visualization. The results of this study show that changes in the livelihood strategy of local people, from farmers and fishermen to traders, also affect land use patterns, from agricultural activities to economic activities, which triggers an increase in the number of buildings for production activities to product distribution. The implications of these findings on ecotourism development programs and policies and infrastructure development in the North Halmahera Regency are to consider community livelihoods and space or land use behavior in ecotourism areas based on vegetation, soil, and building index values. Thus, the intensification of building distribution and changes in vegetation index values from 2013-2023 reflect changes in people's livelihood strategies from agrarian activities to trade and from fishermen's activities to tourism transportation service providers.