PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS
The Municipality of Buenavista is located at the northern tip of Guimaras Island and one of the five towns composing the Province of Guimaras. The northwestern part of the town faces Panay Island and the northeastern portion faces Negros Island. It is 2.0 nautical miles away from Iloilo City through the Iloilo Strait and 4.0 nautical miles away from Negros Island by Guimaras Strait. It has a total land area of 128.26 sq. km. measuring approximately 19 km. at the deepest and having a cross length of about 11 km. There are 281 sitios and 36 barangays in the municipality.
The terrain ranges from plain to slightly hilly. The central and northwestern coastal area is level to nearly level, the northwestern part facing the island of Panay is strongly hilly and the rest from slightly to strongly rolling. There are 6 river systems in the municipality, the biggest and longest of which is the Mantangingi River. Mantangingi river has for its watershed the highlands of the Southern part of the town, cutting through barangays Tinadtaran, Gaban and Nazaret and draining on the marshland of barangay East Valencia.
The land uses of the municipality are shown in the table below. Notably, about 62% of the land area is devoted to agriculture.
Category |
Area (in hectares) |
Total Land Area |
12, 826 Hectares |
Built-Up Area |
124.0720 |
Agricultural |
7, 983.0288 |
Forest |
2, 757.0000 |
Parks & Open Space/Cemetery |
3.5354 |
Grassland/Pasture |
1,371.9715 |
Agro-Industrial |
7.6128 |
Tourism |
23.0000 |
Infrastructure/Utilities |
100.0000 |
