Land Cover Dynamics along the Urban–Rural Gradient of the Port-au-Prince Agglomeration (Republic of Haiti) from 1986 to 2021

Waselin Salomon, Yannick Useni Sikuzani, Kouagou Raoul Sambieni, Akoua Tamia Madeleine Kouakou, Yao Sadaiou Sabas Barima, Jean Marie Théodat and Jan Bogaert
Additional contact information
Waselin Salomon: Unité Biodiversité et Paysage, Gembloux Agro-Bio Tech, Université de Liège, 2 Passage des Déportés, 5030 Gembloux, Belgium
Yannick Useni Sikuzani: Unité Ecologie, Restauration Ecologique et Paysage, Faculté des Sciences Agronomiques, Université de Lubumbashi, Lubumbashi 1825, Congo
Kouagou Raoul Sambieni: Ecole Régionale Postuniversitaire d’Aménagement et de Gestion Intégrée des Forêts et Territoires Tropicaux (ERAIFT), Kinshasa 7948, Congo
Akoua Tamia Madeleine Kouakou: Unité de Formation et de Recherche Environnement, Université Jean Lorougnon Guédé, Daloa 150, Côte d’Ivoire
Yao Sadaiou Sabas Barima: Unité de Formation et de Recherche Environnement, Université Jean Lorougnon Guédé, Daloa 150, Côte d’Ivoire
Jean Marie Théodat: Faculté des Sciences, Université d’Etat d’Haïti (Haïti), URBATeR, URBALaB, Corner of Joseph and Mgr Guilloux Street, Port-au-Prince HT 6110, Haiti
Jan Bogaert: Unité Biodiversité et Paysage, Gembloux Agro-Bio Tech, Université de Liège, 2 Passage des Déportés, 5030 Gembloux, Belgium

Land, 2022, vol. 11, issue 3, 1-16

Abstract: The landscape of the Port-au-Prince agglomeration in the Republic of Haiti has undergone profound changes linked to (peri-)urban expansion supported by rapid demographic growth. We quantify the land cover dynamics along the urban–rural gradient of the Port-au-Prince agglomeration using Landsat images from 1986, 1998, 1999, 2010, and 2021 coupled with geographic information systems and landscape ecology analysis tools. The results show that over 35 years the acreage of the urban zone increased seven-fold while that of the peri-urban area increased five-fold, to the detriment of the rural zone, which was reduced by 14%. The dynamics of the landscape composition along the urban–rural gradient are characterized by a rapid progression of built-up and bare land in urban and peri-urban zones and by fields in the rural zone, in contrast to the more accentuated regression of vegetation in the peri-urban zone. The landscape of the study area has undergone significant changes due to the high demand for housing resulting from rapid population growth, in the context of a lack of territorial development planning by public authorities. This impacts the sustainability of socio-economic and ecological processes in an area where populations are highly dependent on plant resources. Our results underline the necessity to orient territorial development planning in urban, peri-urban and rural zones through an integrated and participatory approach.

Keywords: remote sensing/GIS; spatial dynamics; landscape metrics; urban–rural gradient; urbanization (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q15 Q2 Q24 Q28 Q5 R14 R52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/11/3/355/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/11/3/355/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jlands:v:11:y:2022:i:3:p:355-:d:760345

Access Statistics for this article

Land is currently edited by Ms. Carol Ma

More articles in Land from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().