Urban Network in Strategic Areas in Indonesia Case Study: Sambas Regency, West Kalimantan

Indonesia has endorsed a spatial planning law and identified “strategic areas” to promote development in lagging regions. One such regency (region) that has strategic value is Sambas. Sambas regency has two types of “strategic areas”, namely border areas and tourism strategic areas. This paper is a case study on the Sambas regency in West Kalimantan. The study was undertaken at Paloh district (representative of border areas), and Sambas district (representative of tourism areas, besides being the capital city of Sambas regency). This paper attempts to explore and examine one of the “urban network” types, which is a technical/infrastructure network, to assess the orientation tendency within the network concept. It examines some network measurements to explore the area’s position by using degree/density, closeness, centrality, cluster, and structural equivalence. The findings indicate that most of the infrastructure network in Sambas regency is still centralized and oriented towards Sambas district and some easy access areas, in line with its being the province’s capital city (southern part). Regarding the border area (Paloh), overall the linked networks are still limited due to the development priorities and considering the available access and distance problem. To boost development in the border area, interaction should be enhanced, by considering the role of each area and strengthening their connection through modifying the network.