Abstract:
The Musi watershed is one of the priority watersheds to be recovered due to its critical condition. This is primarily due to forest conversion to other land uses as consequence of population growth and economic development. Land use changes occurred on a large scale would affect hydrological conditions result in natural disasters such as floods and landslides. The sub-watershed of Perapau in Muara Enim District, South Sumatra is one of the areas located in the upper watershed of Musi River that have an essential role to protect the downstream area. However, forest conversion has continuing recently especially to expand the cultivation area. This study aims to examine the history of land use change in the Perapau sub-watershed through Focus Group Discussions (FGD) and satellite image analysis using geographic information systems. The information of drivers of land use change has been obtained from FGD conducted in two villages. Overlay technique of land use maps of 1995 and 2014 has been done to determine the rate of land use change in that period. The results show that forest conversion has begun in the 1970s when coffee commodities have been known by local communities. While, massive forest destruction in the upper sub-watershed occurred in the late 1990s. Based on image analysis the forest area has decreased by 361.97 ha between 1995 and 2014, while other land use such coffee plantation and paddy fields has increased 333.11 ha and 19.89 ha respectively in the same period
