The City of Panabo is located between the two bustling cities of Tagum and Davao City. It is within 125° to 44” North and Longitude of 7°, 14” and 23” East. It is bounded on the North-West by Municipality of Carmen; on the West by Davao City. It is the doorstep of Davao City towards the Province of Davao del Norte. It could be reached by all types of land transportation passing through the Daang Maharlika (Pan-Philippines Highways) plying from Davao City to the northern part of Davao and finally to Butuan City and Cagayan de Oro City. From Davao City, It is 32 kilometers away with an estimated of 45 minutes travel time if no obstructions along the way like traffic and road repair. While from Tagum City, it is 28 kilometers and approximately 30 minutes of travel time.
Land use refers to how land is utilized by people, thus indicating the different forms of human activities taking place in a certain area. Land is much susceptible to change given that people would decide to use land in a different manner in time. Land use classifications are based on the modes of activities performed by users of the land while the allocation of the area per land classification varies accordingly to the culture and management practices in the city. Land use classes identified in the area are as follows: residential, commercial, institutional, light industrial, heavy industrial, agro-industrial, agricultural, forest/mangroves, infra-facilities, buffer/open space, creeks/rivers, fishpond, socialized housing and special used.
The land use of the city is still dominant in agriculture although its area reduces considering the increase of land utilization in other land uses. It comprises 78.76% of the city’s total land area and the fishpond type of use has the smallest land area in Panabo City with only 95.96 hectares or .38% of the total land area.
The residential land use has the biggest area among other uses in the urban. The influx of people from rural to urban barangays attributes to the increasing area of residential use. A probability of employment in the urban locations offer higher than rural locations, one of the reasons is attributed to migration. The area of commerce ranked the second largest land uses in the urban since the area of the central business district was expanded.
Barangays covered are Sto. Ni o, San Francisco, New Pandan, Gredu, San Pedro, Cagangohan and J.P. laurel. Whereas, despite the booming industry of agricultural products in the city, the land area devoted to agro-industrial has the smallest percentage of .56% to the total.