Urbanisation Along The Nile's Canyon-Delta Junction

A remote-sensing approach to permeability and urban form in Greater Cairo

Abstract

The rise of Cairo as a megalopolis in the last four decades has caused a division of the Nile’s canyon and delta ecosystems, as the city grows in the key region where one ecosystem shifts onto another. Urban development has impermeabilized this juncture, losing crucial eco-system benefits as the river’s environmental continuity is undermined. A remote-sensing, decade-by-decade study offers us the chance to obtain a cohesive view of the changes undergone by the city, which are contrasted with a granular analysis of the specific developments that explain Cairo’s expansion. Highlighting key urban phenomena in relation to the whole, the logics behind the urbanisation of this territory can surpass a binomial study of built or fertile, as “mixed” urban green spaces further the debate on the importance of the restoration of the Nile as a green corridor.