Land Use and Land Cover Change in the Urban Landscape of Butembo, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC)

Abstract

The expansion of built-up areas driven by a significant demographic explosion is a critical issue for urban land-use planning. The conversion of rural land to urban areas and other uses significantly impacts the range of products and services provided by natural ecosystems in urban environments. This study examines the spatial-temporal dynamics of land use in the city of Butembo. The Radom Forest model with a supervised approach to Landsat images on the Google Earth Engine (GEE) platform was applied to characterize land cover across three dates (2003, 2013 and 2023). The results reveal pronounced changes in land cover over a 20-year period. Dense forests lost 39.16% and 28.76% of their total area between 2003 and 2023, respectively. Conversely, anthropized classes, such as agricultural lands, built-up areas, and bare soil, experienced a dramatic expansion, with covered areas doubling over the same period. Landscape dynamics are primarily characterized by the fragmentation and reduction of forest classes, alongside the aggregation and creation of agricultural lands, built-up areas, and bare soil. The progressive increase in the landscape disturbance index over time indicates the anthropization of Butembo's landscape. These findings highlight the need for an integrated land-use plan for the sustainable management of Butembo and its natural resources