Sustainable growth through transit-oriented development: land suitability and planning along the Makassar-Parepare railway

Transit-oriented development (TOD) integrates land use and transportation infrastructure to create sustainable, efficient, and accessible urban environments.This study evaluates the potential of greenfield areas surrounding the Maros, Pangkajene, Tanete Rilau, and Barru railway stations along the Makassar-Parepare railway corridor for TOD-based residential development.A land suitability assessment was conducted using the spatial multi-criteria analysis (SMCA) approach combined with a weighted overlay technique, with fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (AHP) results indicating proximity to stations (15.36%) and road access (12.76%) as the most influential factors for sustainable TOD implementation.The findings show that Tanete Rilau and Barru emerge as the most favorable locations, with the majority of their land classified as suitable or highly suitable.Tanete Rilau has 63.11% of its land categorized as suitable, making it highly viable for transit-integrated development, while Barru, with 10.72% of its land highly suitable, presents strong potential for greenfield-preserving TOD.Pangkajene also demonstrates TOD potential, with 50.86% of its land classified as suitable, while Maros faces greater constraints, with 46.44% moderately suitable and 31.62%unsuitable land.These findings highlight the importance of accessibility, infrastructure readiness, and land suitability in guiding TOD-based urban expansion, ensuring optimized land use and sustainable development along the railway corridor.