Land use sustainability to mitigate potential land slide in Ciletuh watershed, Sukabumi, Indonesia

The widespread use of agricultural land and the built-up areas will decrease the land carrying capacity, which means that the area will be more vulnerable to natural disasters. Furthermore, the local community has used the Ciletuh area for agriculture, plantations, and forestry to fulfil the food needs in southern Sukabumi then developing some tourism areas. This study aims to analyse the effects of land management on the ecosystem and develop strategies of land management based on the ecosystem for communities affected by disasters. The analysis was conducted by interviewing community representatives in the upstream, middle, or downstream of the watershed, then elaborated by expert judgment through the Analysis Hierarchy Process method on seven expert respondents. The result shows that potential landslides in December and January due to the highest precipitation occur in both months. Most deforestation occurs in the long term due to the cultivation need for food crops, and increasing more landslide potential. It concludes that both communities and experts consider the community social capacity for spatial arrangement and land use, especially the intensification of land use, could be an alternative to land use sustainability to mitigate potential landslides in the Ciletuh watershed.