Structuration de l’espace autour des lieux sacrés de la ville d’Abomey au Sud-Bénin

Structuring of the Space around the Sacred Places of the City of Abomey in South Benin The natural, historical and cultural heritages are important elements of the city of Abomey. The aim of this research is to analyze the proximity of sacred places to the socio-community infrastructures of the city of Abomey. The mapping is the methodological approach used. The Moran index was used to evaluate the dependence between sacred places. There is spatial independence between sacred places at the 5 % threshold. The structure of the space shows that settlements and unbuilt areas have high rates of space cover. From 100 to 300 m around the palaces, the unbuilt space increases by 39.79 % while the space occupied by settlements decreases by 34.48 %. Moreover, between 300 and 500 m, there is a decrease of 52.46 % in the spatial cover of unbuilt space and a spatial expansion of urban areas by 49.17 %. Around the temples between 100 and 500 m, the spatial cover of urban areas decreased by 15.42 % and that of unbuilt spaces increased by 13.48 %. In contrast, the spatial cover of undeveloped areas around sacred places within 100-300 m increased by 3.23% and the area of urban areas decreased by 3.94 %. Within the 300 and 500 m radius, there was a 2.45 % decrease in the area of unbuilt space and a 1.74% expansion of settlements. The structure of the space shows that settlements and open spaces have the highest rates of spatial occupation around sacred places