De Facto Description of Human Settlements, Urban Areas, Health Facilities, and Topography

For the final project assigned this semester, I produced a spatial plot of the most densely populated areas in a study area of two merged second-level administrative subdivisions in Brunei-Darussalam. The subdivisions in question were Gadong, which has the highest population out of all of Brunei’s mukims, and Sengkurong, a neighboring subdivision of Gadong to the west. Along with mapping population density in these areas, I also identified the positions of road networks, highlighted in red, orange, and yellow to indicate levels of usage (most to least, respectively) and healthcare facilities, which are represented as blue dots on the map.

Urban Areas in Gadong and Sengkurong

Roads and Healthcare Facilities throughout Gadong and Sengkurong

The total population of the second-level administrative subdivisions of Gadong and Sengkurong is 33,267. There are 6 distinctly-defined human settlements in total within the bounds of these two subdivisions. Gadong is the most populous district in Brunei-Darussalam, but has only one densely populated urban settlement. On the other hand, there a few urban areas of different dimensions and dimensions in Sengkurong. There is a lot of seemingly unpopulated (or very sparsely-populated) space throughout the region made up of these two combined districts. One major road with three branching off-routes span the expanse of the region, connecting the settlements in the area to health facilities and each other. These facilities are relatively well distributed based on the sparsely-distributed population of Gadong and Sengkurong.

Rendering Topography

The most densely populated urban settlements in Brunei appear to be clustered near areas of low elevation. Most of the roads in the region seem to circumvent highly elevated areas, tracing along valley and coast lines to connect cities and villages. Health care facilities are primarily grouped near urban areas. Producing a three-dimensional topographical map of Brunei - and in particular, its most densely-populated region, which also happens to be located within its smallest first-level administrative subdivision - has made me gather a different interpretation about the scale of development, infrastructure, and urbanization in the country. Interestingly, by seeing things in three dimensions for the first time, I was able to infer how small of a country Brunei really is, as well as how its small population has organized itself across the land throughout the years.