Urban sprawl has become a very complex process, because it has many factors affecting its directions and values. The study of relative research shows that the driving forces that lead and redirect future urban sprawl require the application of a statistical method. In our study, logistic regressions were used to analyze and class the driving forces for urban sprawl. Identifying the driving forces, which is the most important step in predicting the future of urban sprawl in 2037, was performed using the cellular automata models. This study takes the Aswan area as a case study in the period from 2001 to 2013 by analyzing the official detailed plan and Google Earth historical imagery. Almost all data was prepared for logistic regression analysis using ArcGIS software and IDRISI^® Selva. In our study, a hybrid model of the Markov chain and logistic regression models was applied to identify future urban sprawl in 2037. The findings of this paper simulate the increase in urban area over 24 years from 1.85 to 2.59 km². These findings highlight the growing risks of urban sprawl and the difficulties opposing the sustainable urban development plans officially proposed for this area.

Crime is a part of any social system and known to human communities since its origins. It differs from community to another, even within one community it doesn’t occur equally in all places and nor by the same way. It is also concentrated in some places more than others, sometimes increases, sometimes decreases, etc. Previous researches have proved that crime rate has significant correlation with different social factors: education levels, poverty rates and lack of social organization, while others have drawn the attention to its relation with the built environment. They proposed that crime occurs in places where both opportunities and criminals are available. The role of this paper is to identify urban circumstances related to crime occurrence within the Greater Cairo Region, and to propose different ways to reduce these crimes. Consecutively, agglomeration’s main districts were scrutinized according to social analysis, street-network pattern and land-use.

In the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, studies focused on the relationship between urban planning practice and climatology are still lacking, despite the fact that the latter has nearly three decades of literature in the region and the former has much more. However, such an unfounded relationship that would consider urban sustainability measures is a serious challenge, especially considering the effects of climate change. The Greater Cairo Region (GCR) has recently witnessed numerous serious urban vehicular network re-development, leaving the city less green and in need of strategically re-thinking the plan regarding, and the role of, green infrastructure. Therefore, this study focuses on approaches to the optimization of the urban green infrastructure, in order to reduce solar irradiance in the city and, thus, its effects on the urban climatology. This is carried out by studying one of the East Cairo neighborhoods, named El-Nozha district, as a representative case of the most impacted neighborhoods. In an attempt to quantify these effects, using parametric simulation, the Air Temperature (T_a), Mean Radiant Temperature (T_mrt), Relative Humidity (RH), and Physiological Equivalent Temperature (PET) parameters were calculated before and after introducing urban trees, acting as green infrastructure types that mitigate climate change and the Urban Heat Island (UHI) effect. Our results indicate that an optimized percentage, spacing, location, and arrangement of urban tree canopies can reduce the irradiance flux at the ground surface, having positive implications in terms of mitigating the urban heat island effect.

In recent decades, the integration of nature into cities has witnessed a wave of progressive advancement due to the environmental and anthropological disciplines. However, cities still face numerous challenges in terms of providing and maintaining green spaces. Thus, collaboration and partnerships between various stakeholders are being promoted as a possible solution to such a dilemma with a specific focus on community engagement and placemaking. This research examines the gaps triggering the scarce green open space challenge in Cairo, Egypt, as an example of a rapidly urbanising city in the Global South. In contrast to previous research on green spaces in Cairo, the current study investigates the cascade of the different scales and hierarchical levels of strategies as well as stakeholders concerned with green spaces. The results demonstrate the importance of understanding the dynamics and activating stronger networks between different stakeholders, especially on the community scale. The current research also highlights the importance of determining the actual value of green open spaces for various stakeholders as an essential entry point for placemaking. In addition, it is urging considering the multifunctionality of green spaces as a basis for formulating and negotiating an urban greening policy and strategy in Cairo.

Abouelreesh is one of the most at risk areas in Aswan, Egypt, which suffers from storms, poor drainage, and flash flooding. These phenomena affect the urban areas and cause a lot of damage to buildings and infrastructure. Moreover, the potential for the further realization of dangerous situations increased when the urban areas of Abouelreesh extended towards the risk areas. In an effort to ameliorate the danger, two key issues for urban growth management were studied, namely: (i) estimations regarding the pace of urban sprawl, and (ii) the identification of urban areas located in regions that would be affected by flash floods. Analyzing these phenomena require a lot of data in order to obtain good results, but in our case, the official data or field data was limited so we tried to obtain it by accessing two kinds of free sources of satellite data. First, we used Arc GIS tools to analyze (digital elevation model (DEM)) files in order to study the watershed and better identify the risk area. Second, we studied historical imagery in Google Earth to determine the age of each urban block. The urban growth rate in the risk areas had risen to 63.31% in 2001. Urban growth in the case study area had been influenced by house sizes, because most people were looking to live in bigger houses. The aforementioned problem can be observed by considering the increasing average house sizes from 2001 until 2013, where, especially in risky areas, the average of house sizes had grown from 223 m² in 2001 to 318 m² in 2013. The findings from this study would be useful to urban planners and government officials in helping them to make informed decisions on urban development to benefit the community, especially those living in areas at risk from flash flooding from heavy rain events.

The trend of upgrading urban areas in Egypt is expanding across the region for better urban mobility patterns. Meanwhile, the concerns towards climate change and creating resilient communities are evolving to avoid the dramatic consequences on urban environments. Street trees offer great benefit in climate moderation, particularly in hot arid regions as in Cairo. In this work, different spatial arrangements and locations for evergreen, deciduous trees and palms at NW street canyon are tested using ENVI-met numerical simulation tool. It is aimed to maximize the cooling effect of tree shade on street facades and attain better pedestrian thermal comfort in peak summer times. This ultimately gives better guidance for urban planners and policymakers towards an improved planting design pattern. Comparing simulation results, it is concluded that evergreen trees located at the building edge can provide up to 6°C cooler walls and up to 3.8°C when placed at the building centre. Whilst other tree species have lower cooling effects. Also, these trees have a great role in attaining better thermal comfort levels for pedestrians at the street level. It is recommended to wisely choose suitable tree species and arrangements to maximize the cooling benefits in the urban environment.