Spatial Dynamics of Land Cover Change in Ternate Tengah District, Ternate City, Indonesia

The phenomenon of urban growth has become an important issue that affects the land use system and land cover in a region for several reasons, such as population growth and the economy. This phenomenon has also become one of the main environmental issues lately because it has devastated urban ecosystems. Ternate Tengah District has the highest population growth rate in Ternate City and has experienced extensive urban development due to several reasons, such as the pace of urbanization, economic growth, and population. Urbanization accelerates the demand to land for living. As a result, there will be gaps or disparities between land needs and available land, a decline in environmental carrying capacity, and potential environmental harm in the future. Spatial modeling of future land covers is needed to provide data on policy-making. GIS and remote sensing methods have been widely introduced, but the most effective one is CA-Markov. This model has been used in various areas worldwide, but its application to predicting land use change in the populous city of a small island under threat of volcanic hazards like Ternate is limited. This study aims to evaluate and forecast the land-use changes brought on by urbanization in Ternate City's Central Ternate District. We used a cellular automata-Markov chain to examine and forecast land cover changes in 2002, 2012, 2022, and 2032. The findings indicate that residential area development will increase along with population expansion and land demand. The results of this study can support the policy-making related to the future arrangement and utilization of space in The Central Ternate District.