Description:
Critical land is defined as a land that has been damaged and is not in accordance with its allocation, thus losing or diminishing its functionality to specified or expected limit. Critical land is a land that has less than 25% of vegetation covering, topography with a slope of more than 15% and/or characterized by symptoms of erosion such as sheet erosion (erosilembaran) and gully erosion (erosiparit) (Ministry of Forestry, 1994). The land used is not in accordance with the land capability, making it have or be in the process of physical/chemical/biological damage, which in turn endangers the hydrology function, agricultural production, resettlement and socio-economic life of people in the watershed.
The purpose of this study is to identify the critical level of land on each land unit and land covering based on biophysical parameter analysis in Sub-Sub-watershed Amandit. The benefit attained from this study is expected to find the criticality level of land based on biophysical characteristics of land in Sub-Sub DAS Amandit South Kalimantan.
The results of the analysis showed that the widest area with the most critical level of degradation is actually found in Protected Areas, within over 9,000 hectares. It is followed by Kentawan Mountain Nature Reserve covering an area of over 200 hectares. Very critical land is only found on Protected Forest, although only covering 127.58 hectares. There is very little non-critical land in Sub-sub-watershed Amandit, with 20.51 hectares, which is also only in Protected Forest. This non-critical land is a flat forested area in Protected Forest region. The extent of critical land in the Protected Forest Region is determined by its steep topography, and most of the area actually covered by Shrublands. While critical land on Kentawan Mountains Nature Reserve, in addition to topography, is also determined by the condition of the rocky land, so that no crops that can grow on it.
Keywords: Critical land, erosion, watershed, Amandit, South Kalimantan