The impact of armed conflict and forced migration on urban expansion in Goma: Introduction to a simple method of satellite-imagery analysis as a complement to field research

Abstract

The effects of armed conflict on cities constitute a large field of research in both conflict studies and urban studies. The topic of urban expansion is also explored by the domain of remote sensing, a sub-branch of geoinformation science. Remote sensing researchers analyze the spatial development of cities in conflict and non-conflict environments using satellite imagery.However, a dialogue or collaboration between these disciplines is virtually non-existent in the scientific discourse, mainly due to stark differences in their methodologies – namely, intensive on-the-ground field research in the case of conflict and urban studies and highly elaborate computer-based analysis of remotely-gathered data in the case of remote sensing.We aim to demonstrate a simple and thus feasible approach for the use of satellite imagery by non-experts of remote sensing, to add a spatio-temporal dimension to the results of in-depth field studies. We apply our approach to the city of Goma, in the eastern region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which is located at the center of protracted armed conflict that has raged for decades. With the support of local knowledge acquired during field visits, we visually analyze a time series of Landsat data and add our own results to those of existing research. Contextualizing the mapped results of Goma's urban expansion between 1986 and 2015, we show how urban growth is linked to particular waves of forced displacement caused by different stages of armed conflict and one particular natural disaster.