City pattern as a factor influencing the impact of urbanization on ecosystems - A diachronic analysis of the dynamic of two cities: Kisangani and Lubumbashi (Democratic Republic of Congo)

The patterns and dynamics of two cities between two years (2002 and 2010 for Kisangani; 2002 and 2008 for Lubumbashi, both part of the Democratic Republic of Congo) have been examined in order to estimate how they influence the impact of extension and/or of densification on urban internal and peripheral ecosystems.
For each city two SPOT 5 images were classified with a oriented-object supervised approach; then composition landscape metrics (built area proportion index, anthropized surface proportion index, equitability index of area proportion of classes, dominant class index, dominant class proportion index) have been evaluated in order to 1) identify the extend of each area (urban, suburban, rural) within the urban-rural gradient, 2) quantify the most commonly cited morphological characteristics to describe these different areas and 3) quantify the dynamic of the different areas during this decade.
Landscape ecology assumes that the landscape pattern description is important because, according to the central hypothesis called “pattern-process paradigm”, the ecological processes influence landscape structure and vice versa. Composition metrics, which are commonly used in landscape ecology, describe the pattern among other things in quantifying the presence and the number of patches from the various classes within the landscape. This study singularizes itself from the subjective ones by its quantified and objective approach.
The similarities and differences between these cities, relevance and gaps in the method have then been identified and discussed.
The results of this study are aimed to be used by urban planners for the evaluation of the potential resistance of internal and peripheral natural ecosystems to the extension and/or the densification of a given city, taking into account its pattern and dynamic. It might help them in their choice between different planning alternatives.