150 PROCEEDINGS OF POSTGRADUATE QOLLOQUIUM SEMESTER 1 2009/2010 HISTORICAL LAND USE CHANGES OF JEMPOL, NEGERI SEMBILAN IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY Mohd. Shahrudin Abd. Manan*, Nor Rasidah Hashim M.Sc (GS18042) 4 th Semester ________________________________________________________________________ 1. Introduction Land use is anthropogenic activities as a way for humans to manipulate, modify and adapt with their environment (Singh et al., 2001; Milanova et al., 2005). The activities give significant impacts on the Earth’s surface thus become reliable interface in understanding spatial interaction between human and environment (Mandal, 1982; Lawson, 2001; Legg, 2007). Analyzing past land uses is useful to understand patterns of land use changing over time besides also worthy for heritage conservation projects since it requires and dependant on the availability of complex historical information ranging from the geo-morphological characteristics to demographic patterns of the area interest. Historically, the most important land use change in peninsular Malaysia was the clearing of forest land for agricultural purposes and mining activities as well as for the establishment of settlements along the coastal and riverine area (Cleary & Goh, 2000; Andaya & Andaya, 2001). Subsequent technical development in the late 19 th and 20 th century e.g. railway network constructions and automotive industry, together with the colonial British intervention and growing human population, have dispersed the land use activities into hinterland of the peninsula (IBRD, 1955; Dartford, 1958; Wafa, 1972; Saw, 2007). After independence, land use pattern in Malaysia was dictated by the government policies e.g. Fringe Area Alienation Scheme, Federal Land Development Authority (FELDA) Scheme, Federal Land Consolidation and Rehabilitation Authority (FELCRA) Scheme and New Economic Policy (NEP) which led to the extensive growth of human concentration in urban areas (Wafa, 1972; Stephen & Khoo, 1975; Ooi, 1975 & 1976; Lim, 1976; Salleh, 2000). The studies of past human land use in peninsular Malaysia were conducted using indirect approach phenomenology (Titchen and Hobson, 2005) by critically analyzing historical documentations e.g. statistics and censuses (Wong, 1971; Wafa, 1972; Wan, 1976; Lim, 1976; Cleary & Goh, 2000; Hill, 1997; Rigg, 1997; Gullick, 2003; Hack, 2001). Nevertheless, these studies mostly concentrated on the ‘textual’ and ‘numerical’ analysis often leaves out the ‘sense of space and location’ within the historical documentations. These studies did not use map analysis despite the fact maps are an informative tool to ‘story’ about past phenomenon (Campbell, 1993; Gregory and Southall, 2000; Knowles, 2002). The advancement of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) technology over the past few decades has boosted an interest in spatial researches and as of late GIS has begun to enrich humanities and history research (Goodchild, 1991; Gregory, 2005; Okabe, 2006).