The socio-economic implications of the spatial configuration in greater Cairo metropolitan area (original) (raw)
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Urban division is a process formed by the reaction of several forces, among which, the role of urban policies in shaping division proves high prominence. Cairo witnesses a spatial pattern of division where contrasting socioeconomic areas exist in close proximity. Although some researchers have recently addressed this division in Cairo, its relation with urban policies has always been generalized regardless the specificity of location. This research aims at understanding the relation between urban policies and socioeconomic division on a micro level by investigating how broad urban policies are reflected on a certain part of the city leading to its division. Accordingly, the research adopts a twofold methodology. The first is for selecting the case study which leads to choosing the divided area of (El-Maadi) and (Dar El-Salam). The second is for analyzing the relation with urban policies by forming a relations diagram with lines of causes and influence described with respect to time. The research shows a strong relation between division and urban policies. It is concluded that division is also affected by how urban policies interact with each other and with the characteristics of the area. This puts the generalization of urban policies affecting division under question. Ó 2015 Faculty of Engineering, Alexandria University. Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
In today's world which has turned into an arena for increasing development of urban spaces, a sort of spatial-structural inequality can be observed in urban places of the world particularly in developing countries which has manifested itself in special formats and symbols. This study surveys and analyzes the spatial-structural inequality phenomenon in two metropolises of Islamic world-Tehran and Cairo. It tries to explain the mechanism by which these spatial inequalities appear as well as differences and similarities of their effects. In this study informal settlements are selected as a component which particularly implies spatialstructural inequality. The goal of this study is recognition of spatial pattern of formation of unequal and contradictory spaces in these two metropolises. The approach of this research is descriptive, analytic and casual-comparative.
The Urban Geography of Low-income Housing: Cairo (1947-96) Exemplifies a Model
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Cities in the developing world vary in topography, colonial history and cultural context, as well as in their wealth and economic base. What they have shared since 1945 are rapid growth, extensive poverty, and the presence of many who cannot afford new housing produced by the house-building industry. These circumstances determine the options available to the majority of households, making it possible to generalize about the processes, and to a lesser degree the patterns, of low-income settlement. Drawing upon the work of previous writers, in the first part of this paper we sketch a model of the urban geography of low-income settlement in the developing world. In the second we exemplify our model through a case study of Cairo over the postwar period.
Tracing the Spatial Dynamics of Upper Social Classes in Greater Cairo: A Century's Perspective
International journal of sustainable development and planning, 2024
Greater Cairo Region has grown into segments through successive cohesions. It has experienced a number of phenomena in its journey of development, such as the increasing trajectory of population declines in the old urban mass, the movement of upper classes to the suburbs, as well as the emergence of the pattern of gated communities. The cause of these phenomena resulted from a group of specific factors; (ageing families and ageing buildings, noise pollution, traffic congestion and bottlenecks, etc.). Political and economic factors were dominant in the emergence of these spatial patterns, in addition to the reduction or marginalization of social, urban and legislative factors. The growth and mobility of the upper classes in the region were consistent with the ring theory of upper-class growth and mobility at the beginning of the century until the early 1970s, and with both sectoral and multiple nuclei theory from the mid-1970s, where economic policies shifted to new economic reform programs, underpinned by correlated dynamic processes.
New Cairo's Urban Paradox: All-Inclusive Urbanism vs. Social Exclusion
New Cairo's Urban Paradox: All-Inclusive Urbanism vs. Social Exclusion, 2016
The rapid urbanization of the Egyptian capital and the disappearance of the thin line separating between urban and rural areas, pushed different categories of the population to seek other places to reside. In the 90s, the new settlement of New Cairo appeared as a breakthrough. Its all-inclusive urbanism and planning trends integrated social, economic and physical aspects. On the one hand, New Cairo was originally designed to include a wide variety of citizens and activities all assimilated together and well-defined in one plan. On the other hand, today New Cairo is a developed city where gated communities seem to outnumber free residential areas. An example of all-inclusive built environment where social exclusion is prevailing! This paper aims at scrutinizing, as well as tracing this paradigm shift in the urban evolution of New Cairo. It starts with a thoroughly inductive analysis of the urban concepts involved originally in its planning, compared to the actual urban situation. Subsequently, we might be able to understand the emergence of a "ghettoïsation" phenomenon.
Spatial analysis of the urban system in the Nile Valley of Egypt
Ain Shams Engineering Journal, 2017
This paper aims to analyze the spatial distribution and the field of influence of Nile Valley cities in Egypt during the last sixty years (1947-2006), which witnessed rapid and massive socioeconomic changes in the region. The paper starts by a qualitative review of literature about urban systems and methods of spatial analysis. Then, it quantitatively examines the spatial-distribution and the field of influence of Nile Valley cities. In the spatial-distribution analysis, the paper examined the spatial distribution pattern (concentration or dispersion), and the size-distance relationship between cities. In the field of influence analysis, the paper tries to quantitatively delineate the field of influence of each city. Through these steps, the paper deductively came to some important recommendations to overcome the revealed spatial imbalances in of the urban system in the Nile Valley, and to manage the urban future in the region.
Frontiers of Architectural Research
Many cities in Egypt have been built recently with spatial characteristics that differ structurally from the spatial configuration of the ancient Arab city. There is a growing interest in understanding how social and economic phenomena related to the community are trans- formed in new cities, particularly those that extend from the old city, as is the case with the city of New Cairo. We have developed an analytical framework to study the effects of spatial configuration on the pace of growth of the new city and identify its characteristics in terms of phenomena related to movement and the distribution of economic activities, as well as urban vitality. A framework for combining quantitative and qualitative analysis helps in understanding phenomena related to the morphology of the development of the new city. Using syntactic analysis, place syntax and field observation, the spatial characteristics of the city of New Cairo were investigated, then compared with Old Cairo to determine which features were enriched in terms of the city’s vitality or what has been lost during the expansion phases, based on the planning concepts that were applied. The study concluded that changes in the characteristics of the spatial configurations of the new Egyptian cities by increasing the flow of vehicular traffic via wide arterial roads do not reflect the requirements of the local community, but instead impede local movement within the city and reduce the integration of its neighbourhoods, turning them into isolated islands. The greatest impact of this is the way in which the characteristics of society in these cities have been limited, resulting in isolation and a lack of connection with the identity of the place and the customs and traditions of the community. This paper presents an analytical framework for evaluating similar cities in terms of the characteristics of this planning configuration, identifying the extent to which the old has been preserved or changed and emphasising the validity of the methodology by evaluating the characteristics of other new cities.