The Makassar City Government, through the Department of Spatial Planning and Buildings (Distaru), has officially initiated an innovative program called Coastal Landscape Environmental Engineering, abbreviated as "Railing Besi" (Iron Railing). This tactical step was taken to tighten the monitoring and control of spatial utilization, particularly in coastal and island areas that currently face massive development pressure.
This innovation, projected as a strategic program for 2026, utilizes a combination of advanced technologies such as Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) mapping, drones, and a WebGIS system. The Head of Distaru Makassar City, Muh Fuad Azis, revealed that the process of identifying coastal landscapes as the initial foundation for monitoring is now running smoothly with progress reaching 75 percent.
The implementation of this technology also serves as a response to the limited human resources faced by the local government. Currently, Distaru is only supported by 53 inspection personnel to monitor approximately 347,000 building units spread across 153 sub-districts throughout Makassar City.
To overcome this constraint, Distaru is embracing active community participation by forming Spatial Planning Volunteers. Through a digital platform integrated with WebGIS, volunteers can quickly report indications of spatial planning violations in their surrounding environment to the authorities.
Fuad emphasized that the "Railing Besi" approach does not prioritize immediate repressive actions or forced demolition. Instead, the government applies guidance principles through incentive and disincentive schemes, which will later be regulated in a Mayor's Regulation to align building functions with the Regional Spatial Plan (RTRW).
In the future, this digital monitoring system will also be integrated with Building Approval (PBG) services. This integration is expected to make it easier for investors and the general public to access spatial planning data transparently, while minimizing the potential growth of slum areas due to uncontrolled illegal construction.
