Abstract
Since the sixties, urban areas have been spreading on the Pacific islands. Half a dozen of large built-up areas and a mainmetropolitan city are now emerging in the Oceanian landscape. As this phenomenon was growing rapidly, multiple tensions havebeen appearing, so in the years 2010 these focuses of development have to face various challenges in terms of building-up. Thenecessity of a permanent enlargement of different networks (access to fresh water, treatment of sewerage, garbage, rubble andsolid waste), the spreading of poverty and slums, the deterioration of shore environment because of a too strong anthropic pressurecause difficulty and challenge the authorities, specially in the small independent countries which are mostly without consistenteconomic resources. Nowadays familiar to all Oceanians, cities are still subject to strong debates. Consequently to a large historicaland geographical diversity, the analysis of main cities and the urban process in the Pacific islands must be initiated at differentscales, especially to evaluate their impact on the bio physical environments and their influence on the organisation of the insularterritories.