Rural sprawl refers to the spatial phenomenon of built-up area expansion into previously rural regions dominated by agricultural lands and green open spaces. In Boyolali Regency, urbanization and infrastructure development over the past decade have become major drivers of land use change, leading to the spread of settlements into rural areas. Understanding this phenomenon is essential to analyse its patterns and impacts on spatial planning and environmental sustainability. Therefore, this study aims to identify and analyse rural sprawl in Boyolali Regency over the period from 2014 to 2024. This research utilizes the Google Earth Engine (GEE) platform to analyse land cover changes using Landsat 8 imagery (for 2014 and 2017) and Sentinel-2 imagery (for 2020 and 2024). Image processing was conducted using Normalized Difference Built-up Index (NDBI). A threshold-based classification was applied to distinguish between built-up and non-built-up areas. Spatial changes were analysed using overlay techniques across the study years, and the growth rate of built-up areas in rural zones was calculated. The results are the development is no longer tied to the main infrastructure corridor, but is instead spreading widely, reflecting the characteristics of fringe sprawl around the city center.
Pratama et al. (Tue,) studied this question.