Analyzing spatial development processes using urban models and geographic information systems: Bandung, Indonesia

Abstract

Bandung is the capital city of the region of West Java and is one of the fastest-growing secondary cities in Indonesia. Since it was founded in 1488, Bandung's role has changed twice-first from a primate city to a colonial capital and then to its present-day status as an educational and industrial city. These changes have lead to rapid economic development in Bandung. Because of a lack of planning, the resulting development has been uncontrolled sprawl. This research analyzes the socioeconomic processes that shaped Bandung's spatial characteristics. The research includes thorough historical and spatial analyses. The historical analysis assesses the extent and character of urban economic and spatial changes. The spatial analysis involves the development of a digital spatial database and network modeling. Historical analysis reveals that Bandung has experienced four major periods of historical development including: pre-Hindu (prior to the 1400s), Islamic and early colonialism(1400-1700), colonial partition and penetration (1700-1900), and late colonialism and independence (1900s to present). This analysis reveals the general features of Bandung's urban spatial structure. Bandung's features fit the typical characteristics of urban morphological model of Indonesian cities, which include: a traditional nucleus, kampungs, commercial, industrial, and residential districts. Bandung's spatial growth has been influenced significantly by the governments political and economic decisions from the Dutch colonial period to the present-day. Major political decisions included the establishment of Bandung as a center for education and high-tech industry and its designation as the capital city of West Java. Spatial and network analysis, included spatial interaction and location-allocation modeling, measurement of the level of interactions between activity centers and population poles, the accessibility of each center to the population poles, and the allocation of centers' service areas. The models reveal that flows of goods and people are highly concentrated in Bandung's center because goods and services available in the center. The analysis proposes additions of new retail and industrial centers in the eastern subdistricts to better distribute the flow of goods and people. This redistribution relieves congestion by reducing the length of trips and the number of vehicles on the most congested network links.