Land Use Planning in Geotourism Area: Sipiso – Piso Waterfall, Indonesia

N. Vinky Rahman

1,2

, Nurlisa Ginting

1,2

*, Nindya Narisa

Department of Architecture, Faculty of Engineering, Universitas Sumatera Utara, 9 Dr. T. Mansyur Street, Medan 20155,

Indonesia

Toba Lake & Sustainable Tourism Working Group, Universitas Sumatera Utara, 9 Dr. T. Mansyur Street, Medan 20155,

Indonesia

Keywords: Land Use Planning, Geotourism, Sipiso-Piso Waterfall

Abstract: Sustainable tourism has become the most popular industry for the last several years. It is not only one of the

largest source of foreign exchange income for the country, but also help to remain the sustainability in the

future. Geotourism is a part of tourism that prioritizes sustainability of the environment. Improper land use

without further planning can make a bad impact on the tourist area. Therefore, a proper plan for land use in

geotourism is very important. The purpose of this paper is to create a concept in planning the land use of

geotourism area, which is the Sipiso-Piso waterfall, to maintain the sustainability of the place, and also to

increase the quality of the tourist area. The method used in this research is a qualitative method with literature

studies beforehand, followed by interviews with related parties and field observation. After that, it would be

analyzed with elements of land use such as, land use intensity, land function, and relationship between land’s

function. The results show that the land use element in Sipiso-Piso waterfall is inadequate and needed

enchancement.

1 INTRODUCTION

Tourism is one of the industries that has largest

contribution towards the foreign exchange income for

a country (Ginting, Rahman & Nasution 2017).

Today, the concern of tourism revolves around

sustainable tourism which not only contribute

towards economic aspects for locals but also

maintains the area to be sustainable in the future

(Edgell Sr 2016). Geotourism is a part of sustainable

tourism with the concept of developing an area by

prioritizing the natural wealth namely, geodiversity

(the uniqueness of rocks). This concept is used as a

tourist attraction that educates the tourists while

prioritizing the involvement of locals and not

neglected the sustainability of the environment

(Bujdosó et al. 2015; Dowling 2013). To keep the

environment in the tourist area well maintained, a

proper planning in land use is needed. Improper or

excessive land use can cause damages towards the

tourist area (ABUHARRIS & Ruddock 2005;

Tyrväinen et al. 2014). Sipiso – Piso Waterfall is one

of the geotourism areas of the Caldera Toba, which

exists because of the eruption of largest supervolcano

in the world 74 thousand years ago (Mucek et al.

2017). Unfortunately, Sipiso-Piso does not have any

proper plan for the land use in the area. There are

always different changes made to the area annually

regarding the land use. This must be handled properly

as improper land use can lead to the damage on

sustainability of the area. Therefore, this paper

discusses how the concept of land use planning so it

will be able to maintain the sustainability of the place

and increase the quality of tourism.

2 LITERATURE REVIEW

The concept of geotourism is to develop an area

focusing on the natural wealth, namely the

geodiversity (uniqueness of the rocks) which is used

as natural tourist attraction. There are also education

for the tourists about the attraction, developed with

the participation of the locals and continue to

maintain the environmental sustainability (Bujdosó et

al. 2015; Dowling 2013). There are four elements that

should be considered in planning a geotourism area:

geological feature visiting; geo-activity like, tour

guide, cultural and educational activities; viewpoints;

facilities such as, interpretation panel, tourist

356

Rahman, N., Ginting, N. and Nar isa, N.

Land Use Planning in Geotourism Area: Sipiso – Piso Waterfall, Indonesia.

DOI: 10.5220/0010098603560362

In Proceedings of the International Conference of Science, Technology, Engineering, Environmental and Ramiﬁcation Researches (ICOSTEERR 2018) - Research in Industry 4.0, pages

356-362

ISBN: 978-989-758-449-7

information center, souvenir shop, accessibility, and

other supporting facilities (Dowling 2011; Norrish,

Sanders & Dowling 2014; Rahman et al. 2018; Štrba

et al. 2016).

Land use is a two-dimensional planning on the

functions of a place by considering the natural

capacity or the capacity of the environment.

Therefore, land use planning is a sensitive process,

where the success of physical and socio-economic

functions are depending on it (Shirvani 1985). In

making a land use plan, the intensity of land use, the

permitted function of the land, and the relationship

between existing functions must be considered. If

land use is not planned properly, there will be lost of

spaces and inappropriate distribution of land

functions (Shirvani 1985; Trancik 1986). In tourist

areas, especially in sustainable tourism, inappropriate

land use can damage the area and damage the

sustainability of the area (Berke & Conroy 2000;

Tyrväinen et al. 2014).

In this study, three elements of land use are: land

use intensity, land function, and the relationship

between the land’s functions. The three elements of

land use will be linked to the four elements of

geotourism: transportation to geological features,

viewpoints, geo-activities, facilities and

infrastructure (Table 1) with the aim of obtaining the

concept of land use planning in geotourism area.

3 METHOD

3.1 The Method

This research was done to find the land use concept

in Sipiso-Piso waterfall. The method used to collect

date is a qualitative method with observations and

interviews. Data from observation is from

photographs of the physical conditions of study area

in accordance with the research variables (Table 1).

In addition, interviews were conducted with

stakeholders related to geotourism in the study area,

namely tourism activists, government, local figures,

geologists and academic to get their perception in the

areas related to land use in geotourism area.

Furthermore, the data obtained is analyzed used the

theory of land use and geotourism to get the concept

of land use planning in the geotourism area.

Table 1: Research Variables.

Land Use

Variables

Geotourism Variables

Geological

Features Visiting

Viewpoints

Land Use

Intensity

 Land

used for

view

oints

Land

Function

 Viewpoi

nts

 Park

 Stoppoi

nts

Relationsh

ip between

land’s

functions

 Circulation

Land Use

Variables

Geotourism Variables

Geo-Activities Facilities

Land Use

Intensity

 Land used for

geo-activities

 Land used

for

infrastructur

e and

facilities

Land

Function

 Restaurant

& Café

 Souvenirs

Shops

 Visitors

Center

 Praying

Area

 Toilet

 Parkin

Relationsh

ip between

land’s

functions

 Cultural Event

 Educative

Attraction

3.2 Research Area

Sipiso-Piso waterfall is part of Caldera Toba with

amazing natural beauty. This waterfall was formed

from the explosion of the Toba Caldera supervolcano

which take place 74.000 years ago (Mucek et al.

2017; Rahman et al. 2018). The results of this

eruption created a panoramic view of nature, cultural

and biological diversity, and the extraordinary types

of rocks in Lake Toba area. This eruption also gave

birth to people who have local wisdom and live in

harmony with their nature (Mucek et al. 2017). Many

things can be done by visitors in there, such as

picnicking with family or just taking pictures

enjoying the natural beauty of the Waterfall. To reach

the bottom of the waterfall, visitors need a long time

Land Use Planning in Geotourism Area: Sipiso – Piso Waterfall, Indonesia

357

of about 1 hour down the stairs and to return to the

top visitors must climb the same steps (Figure 1.).

Figure 1: Sipiso – Piso, Tongging, Karo.

4 RESULT

4.1 Land Use Intensity

The open space in Sipiso-Piso Waterfall is still more

in number than the built land. The built area is mostly

in the form of food and souvenir shops, and also

toilets, mushola, and pavilions for a place to relax and

sit and see the scenery (figure 2.). it is show that

Sipiso- Piso Waterfall still has a good land use

intensity, because excessive use of land by reducing

existing open space will damage the sustainability of

an area (Berke & Conroy 2000; Downs 2005).

Figure 2: Existing Land Use.

However, most of the open space is used as

parking spaces when there were a lot of visitors. In

addition, in the past two years there has been an

unplanned viewpoint construction (figure 3). If this

condition is left unchecked, it will damage the tourist

area because excessive and unplanned land use will

make the area unsustainable(Berke & Conroy 2000;

Tyrväinen et al. 2014).

Figure 3: Unplanned Viewpoint.

4.2 Land Use Function

The land built in Sipiso-piso Waterfall has various

functions to support tourism activities there (figure

2). When viewed from the element of viewpoints,

Sipiso-piso already has several veiwpoints and a

pavillion or seating area (figure 4). But, the viewpoint

and seat were not well maintained and not well

planned. There are broken seats and some viepoints

eventually prevent visitors from seeing the views of

the Waterfall. Supposedly, the viewpoint is designed

to make tourists feel the beauty of rocks which are the

result of natural formation (ARIMA 2016). In

addition, when going down to the waterfall, there is

no adequate stoppoint place so visitors can’t rest.

Whereas the places that stopped were not planned,

some were too close, some were very far away. This

is unfortunate, stoppoints should be made so that

visitors do not feel tired and enjoy their journey

(Rahman et al. 2018).

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358

Figure 4: Seats that are not well maintained.

From the elements of facilities and infrastructure,

the land function built in Sipiso-piso Waterfall is

quite complete, there are souvenir shops, eating

places, toilets, places of worship, and parking lots

(Figure 2). Nevertheless, although it is quite

complete, the facilities are inadequate conditions,

such as souvenir shops and food places, where the

place is less representative and attractive, the existing

toilet is also poorly maintained, as well as places of

worship that although new but not maintain and have

no water (Figure 5). These facilities should be well

maintained so that visitors feel comfortable at the

tourist attractions, because a tourist place must have

good and adequate supporting facilities to support the

needs of visitors so that they are comfortable,

comfortable, and want to return to the place in the

future (Ginting & Sasmita 2018; Inskeep 1987).

Figure 5: Condition of Musholla, Souvenir Shop, and Toilet

in Sipiso-Piso Waterfall.

The parking lot at Sipiso-piso Waterfall can be

said to be quite adequate, but there is no good

planning, because if there are a lot of visitors, their

vehicles will parked along the road and open space.

Whereas there are three parking lots at there (figure

2), but the parking area are irregular, besides that the

most extensive parking lot is rarely used by visitors

(figure 6). Supposedly, th parking lot should be well

organized, because it can affect tourist satisfaction

and make them want to return to the place (Ginting,

Rahman & Nasution 2017).

Figure 6: The biggest parking lot that is not used.

Despite having quite complete facilities, Sipiso-

piso Waterfall does not have an information center

which is one of the most important places that must

be in the geotourism area. The information center can

help tourists to get information about the area of

tourist attractions that they visited, especially in the

geotourism information center can inform and offer

activities that can be done while educating tourists

Land Use Planning in Geotourism Area: Sipiso – Piso Waterfall, Indonesia

359

about what geotourism and geopark (Burlando et al.

2011; Rahman et al. 2018).

4.3 Relationship between Land’s

Functions

Between the function of one land use with the other

function is related to circulation. Therefore

circulation must be good especially in tourist areas.

Good circulation will make all the functions that exist

in an area come alive (Shirvani 1985). Unfortunately

the circulation at Sipiso-piso Waterfall has not been

well organized. There is already a special pedestrian

route, even in the viewpoint and leisure areas (figure

7) is specially passed by pedestrians only. However,

the road is damaged and has many holes. Pedestrian

paths must be well designed because tourists will tend

to walk around a tourist area if the physical path of

the pedestrian route they are going through is

comfortable and adequate (Mansouri & Ujang 2016).

Figure 7: Condition of Pedestrian Path.

Although there are already special pathways for

pedestrians, but in some functions such as eating

places, especially mushollas that are very far

compared to other functions, there is no pedestrian

facilities. Tourists can walk along the edge of the road

and relatively safe, but if it is crowded, the roadside

is filled with vehicles such as cars and motorbikes that

require tourists to walk a little to the middle of the

road, this is very dangerous (figure 8). Supposedly,

there is a special pedestrian path that connects one

function to another, because if tourists feel that their

safety is not guaranteed they will not go to that place

(Mansouri & Ujang 2016). This will make some

function not visited by tourists.

Figure 8: Vehicles parked on the road.

Sipiso-Piso Waterfall, unfortunately does not

have a lot of activities that can be done there besides

seeing beautiful scenery while sitting or picnicking.

This is very unfortunate, because it should be as a

geotourism area, Sipiso-Piso must have many

interesting activities such as cultural activities and

education to increase the length of time they visit to

keep going (Rahman et al. 2018). Cultural activities

for example will make tourists feel the local culture

that the region has, besides that in geotourism cultural

activities can be combined with educational activities

such as in Longshuan Geopark, which provides

lessons to tourists about the natural rocks that are

there while entertaining tourists with their cultural

performance (Ginting, Rahman & Nasution 2017;

Ren, Simonson & Pan 2013).

4.4 Purpose Land Use Concept

Land use in Sipiso-piso Waterfall using the built-in

land intensity is appropriate and quite good, it's just

that there is a need improvement for unplanned

development restrictions by the local community and

misuse of open space for parking. From the elements

of land function, most of the land functions needed by

a geotourism area are there, but some important

functions such as stoppoint and information center

still do not exist. Apart from that the position and

design of the viewpoint are obstructing the view so it

must be fixed. Likewise with other functions such as

eating places, souvenir places, and toilets whose

designs are less representative. The existing parking

space is still not well organized so it must be repaired.

For the relationship between function one and other

functions, there is still no good circulation and easy

for tourists to pass through and there are still no

interesting activities to be done by tourists there.

Therefore, the land use planning at Sipiso-Piso

Waterfall is need to improved to overcome these

problems (Figure 9).

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360

Figure 9: Purpose Land Use.

Changes that made are not many, as for the first

change is to make an information center at Sipiso-

Piso Waterfall. The information center will used one

of the biggest building in Sipiso-piso that used to be

dining place only. This is very unfortunate because

the largest building there is only used for eating

places that also do not use the entire building. So,

instead of create new building, the information center

used that building instead.

The second change is to reduce the parking space

in Sipiso-Piso Waterfall, precisely the parking lot in

the middle of the area. This change was made, in

addition because the parking lot was very obstructing

the beautiful scenery that can be obtained from the

middle of the area so that the largest parking space

can be used by visitors so that there are no more

jostling vehicles in the middle of the Sipiso-Piso

Waterfall area. In addition, the central part will be

used as an open space to conduct various geotourism

activities such as cultural activities.

Other changes are the addition of stoppoints and

pedestrian paths around the dining area to the

musholla. This addition is done so that tourists when

visiting can feel comfortable. The addition of

stoppoint will reduce visitors' fatigue when climb

down to the location of the waterfall. Then the

pedestrian path along the dining area to the musholla

will give tourists a sense of security when walking

without fear of a vehicle.

5 CONCLUSIONS

Sipiso-Piso Waterfall, seen from the land use is

already good enough. The three elements of land use,

namely land use intensity, land function, and

relationships between functions are quite good.

However, even so there are still some deficiencies in

these three elements. In the element of land use

intensity because there is no land use plan, there are

some unplanned viewpoint developments. In the

element of land function, there is still an important

function in the geotourism area which is not owned

by Sipiso-Piso Waterfall, namely Stoppoint and

information centers and irregular parking spaces. In

the element of relationship between functions,

circulation for pedestrian pathways is still not good

and adequate. Therefore, this paper provides the

concept of land use planning to address these

problems. Unfortunately, not all problems can be

solved by conceptualizing land use planning, such as

the problem of less representative building design and

less geotourism activities that cannot be resolved with

land use planning. Therefore, the author recommends

a study of other planning elements in the Sipiso-Piso

Waterfall geotourism area.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This research is financing supported by DRPM

Ministry of Research and Technology and the Higher

Education Republic of Indonesia with the research

grant of number 155/UN5.2.3.1/PPM/KP-

DRPM/2018 Year 2018. And in the field this research

is also supported by Toba Lake & Sustainable

Tourism Working Group Universitas Sumatera Utara.

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