Lateef, S.A.,  Fernandez-Alonso, M.,  Tack, L. & Delvaux, D. 2010. ‘Geological Constraints on Urban Sustainability, Kinshasa City, Democratic Republic of Congo’. Environmental Geosciences, special issue : 17(1)  17-37. American Association of Petroleum Geologists. DOI: 10.1306/eg.040809080078.  (PR).

Article in a scientific Journal / Article in a Journal

Kinshasa City, capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo, is a case of an aborted urban development. Natural phenomena combined with political instability, collapse of state and civil strife blurred further the inherited infantile urban character of colonial times to yield an urban morphogenetic crisis. In this paper, we use surface and subsurface geological data in the form of a number of geological and hydrogeological maps, groundwater contour maps, geotechnical isopach and isohypse maps, and other illustrations that aid in the recognition of problems of pollution, accelerated erosion and floods to highlight the geological constraints on sustainable urban planning, socio-urban setting and human well-being in this African megacity.

• Discontinuities and tectono-sedimentary events in the Cuvette centrale and surrounding basins in D.R. Congo