Abstract

Global methodology for delineating urban-rural areas is needed to monitor the Sustainable Development Goals indicator. The degree of urbanisation (DEGURBA), a proposed method by the United Nations, can classify cluster areas into three-level categories; urban centres, urban clusters, and rural. Those classifications are produced by considering three main variables, i.e. population density, the proportion of settlement areas, and neighbourhood contiguity. In addition, several sequential procedures are conducted to produce the categories, i.e. creating a population grid, developing a grid of DEGURBA, and applying DEGURBA into small spatial units. Here, the DEGURBA is implemented in Indonesia with several modifications adapting to the island topology in Indonesia.
Moreover, the recent result of the 2020 Population Census and the Global Human Settlement Layer, which contain the percentage of settlement areas, are used to emphasise the results. The results of DEGURBA implementations show several inequalities in Indonesia in the form of 1kmx1km grid areas. First, regarding population density, the Java Islands are the densest island in Indonesia, with more than 70% composing the grid having more than 500 people. The results are significantly imbalanced compared to other islands, such as Papua. Second, based on the grid of DEGURBA, the composition of three DEGURBA categories are quite varied on each island. The urban centres dominate in Java Island; the urban cluster dominates in Sumatera, Bali-Nusra, and Sulawesi island; and the rural dominate in Kalimantan, Maluku, and Papua. The domination of urban clusters in the three islands represents the shifting urbanisation process. Lastly, for the small spatial units, most spatial units in Indonesia are classified as rural areas, except Java Islands, which are dominated by cities.