ABSTRAKPenelitian ini membahas tentang karakteristik bentang lahan rawa dalam kaitannya dengan pengembangan persawahan di sekitar sungai Kumbe, Kabupaten Merauke, Provinsi Papua. Pola spasial sebaran bentang lahan rawa ditelusuri melalui analisis data citra Landsat 7 tahun 2005, 2007, 2010, 2012, dan foto udara tahun 2015. Klasifikasi lahan rawa di daerah studi ditetapkan melalui observasi pasang surut sungai Kumbe dan timpang susun dengan peta ketinggian. Hasil penelitian mengungkapkan bahwa lahan rawa di muara Sungai Kumbe merupakan lahan rawa air tawar yang tidak dipengaruhi oleh kondisi pasang surut. Kondisi lahan rawa pada tahun 2015 dapat di kategorikan sebagai rawa lebak dalam. Wilayah ini tersebar di bagian tengah daerah studi. Lahan rawa lebak dalam tidak dapat dikembangkan sebagai lahan persawahan namun dapat difungsikan sebagai tampungan air storage untuk kebutuhan air irigasi persawahan.

---

ABSTRACT Indonesia is an agricultural country with many of natural resources land that can be used as farming. The growing population lead to high land use as both a settlement and economic activity center for urban and industrial development. The late condition can disrupt food security. Rice is a staple food for Indonesian people. Corn was staple food of the islands of Java and Madura islands are becoming obsolete. Likewise with Sago which slowly abandoned by the people of Papua. The potential landscape for rice fiel is Kumbe river in Distric Semangga, Merauke, Papua. The method to do this research is a quantitative descriptive design. The results of this study concluded that the wetlands in the Kumbe river, District Semangga fit for use as agricultural land as well as the continuation of agricultural land continued, wetlands can also be used as a raing storage or as a source of irrigation because of the nature puddle changing.