Abstract
Colonial buildings on small islands are often treated as isolated architectural relics, even though their locations can reveal broader patterns of maritime access, political negotiations, and cultural transformations. This study aims to analyze the geographic distribution of colonial buildings on Savu Island in eastern Indonesia by integrating Geographic Information Systems, remote sensing, and historical interpretation. This research uses high-resolution satellite imagery, Google Maps, Google Earth, GPS-based field verification, secondary historical sources, and local knowledge to identify and classify colonial heritage sites. The mapped sites include forts, churches, graves, and shipwrecks, which were then analyzed through spatial overlay with coastlines, roads, satellite imagery, hill shading, elevation gradients, contour lines, and slope maps. The findings indicate that colonial structures on Savu Island are strongly associated with coastal and near-coastal zones, reflecting the importance of maritime access, inter-island mobility, trade, missionary activities, and control of sea lanes. Relatively flat terrain supported administrative, residential, and religious functions, while elevated or transitional terrain offered opportunities for surveillance, symbolic authority, and defensive strategies. This study argues that GIS-based cultural heritage mapping can serve not only as an inventory tool but also as an interpretive framework for reconstructing the spatial logic of colonial occupation in small-island environments.