Land Use Growth Simulation and Optimization for Achieving a Sustainable Urban Form

Abstract

Urban areas have been perceived as the source of environmental problems. To avoid improper land use allocation, negative sprawl effects, and other sources of environmental degradation, city planners need tools for simulating and optimizing their proposed plans. This study proposed a “what-if” analysis model that could help the planners in assessing and simulating their urban plans in Bekasi City, Indonesia. As part of Jakarta Metropolitan Area which exhibited a “post-suburbanization” phenomenon, this city faces many problems because of its high urban growth. Since the urban area has higher land use density than the rural area, especially on built-up class, it needs more consideration when allocating this kind of land use. Because each type of built-up class influences another type, it is difficult to allocate manually. Therefore, this study proposed a land-use optimization application to help planners finding the appropriate land use. This study showed that a model with simulation and optimization can be used to handle urban growth.