URBAN DYNAMICS AND MUTATIONS OF THE ABOMEY AND BOHICON TERRITORIES (BENIN REPUBLIC)

The population's growth in both territories of Abomey and Bohicon has generated a dynamic of spatial occupation transforming these different spaces. This article has analyzed urban dynamics and the changes that take place there. The adopted methodology combines the documentary research and the diachronic method. The data from the various censuses of the population, the observation and the Landsat TM, ETM +, OLI / Shots images were processed and analyzed. From 1986 to 2017, tree and shrub savannahs and swamp formations lost respectively 89% and 35% of their areas in Abomey, while in Bohicon these savannas lost 94% to the detriment of built-up areas, mosaics cultures, fallow lands and marsh forest. The artificialized surfaces of the territories are 50% and 62% of which 17% and 19% of built-up areas respectively in Abomey and Bohicon In addition to its cultural and administrative functions, Abomey acquires the university function while Bohicon financial, tourism which adds to commercial, administrative and industrial function. The growth of these territories is done by adding new surfaces to the central urban core, so as to merge two districts forming a conurbation. Real urbanization rates have oscillated before settling between 2013 and 2017, to 84% for Abomey and 58% for Bohicon. These transformations would be nourished by peri-urbanization, which certainly could lead to urban sprawl, the factors of which will have to be identified for the sustainable management of these territories.