Monitoring land cover change and its estimated carbon loss in the Nusantara capital city Indonesia on high-resolution planet satellite imagery

Abstract

Nusantara is a city currently under construction to serve as the future capital city of Indonesia, replacing DKI Jakarta. It is located on the island of Kalimantan/Borneo, approximately 1200 Km away from DKI Jakarta on the island of Java. Initially, a significant portion of the Nusantara Capital City was covered with forests and vegetation. The objective of this study is to assess the land cover changes occurring in the Nusantara Capital City using multi-temporal remote sensing satellite imagery. The satellite images used in this study are obtained from Planet's Doves satellite, which consists of four bands (Blue, Green, Red, and Near Infra-Red), as well as SuperDove, which offers eight bands (Ocean Blue, Blue, Green I, Green, Yellow, Red, Red Edge, and Near Infra-Red). Despite being categorized as small satellites, they have a high spatial resolution of 3-5 meters. Remote sensing indices were used to facilitate the land cover classification in areas of interest (AoI), especially the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), considering the nature of the land cover. Land cover changes from several different times, starting from 2021, were compared to determine the extent of changes that have occurred. The carbon stock loss in Nusantara was also approximated quarterly using NDVI. As of June 2023, the results indicate that approximately 8.3% of the total AoI has experienced a loss in vegetation, with the most significant decline observed in March 2023. These findings contribute to expanding our understanding of the evolving landscape in the Nusantara Capital City.