Contemporary urban planning faces the ongoing challenge of developing Green Infrastructure capable of providing vital ecosystem services. Within this framework, the Barcelona metropolitan area has advanced a network of parks that, while serving local neighborhoods, also aim for metropolitan relevance. This study offers a forward-looking analysis of selected parks in the southern Llobregat River basin—an area shaped by historic villages and working-class settlements—to evaluate their contribution to both Green Infrastructure and the region’s polycentric structure. Building on previous landmark studies and multidisciplinary perspectives, the research examines eight parks through four spatial and scalar lenses, assessing their territorial role and accessibility, ecological connectivity, urban integration and permeability, and landscape design with both qualitative and quantitative data. Using a comparative framework alongside research-by-design methods tested in urban design studios, the research links analytical insights to design-based strategies. The outcome is a set of actionable guidelines aimed at enhancing local park performance, with broader implications for over 50 ‘Metropolitan Parks’ spread in more than 30 municipalities. These insights contribute to shaping a more integrated, livable, and resilient metropolitan region.

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. El auge de El Cairo como megalópolis en las últimas cuatro décadas ha provocado una división de los ecosistemas del cañón y el delta del Nilo, al crecer la ciudad en la región clave donde un ecosistema cambia al otro. El desarrollo urbano ha impermeabilizado esta transición, perdiendo beneficios ecosistémicos cruciales al socavarse la continuidad medioambiental del río. Un estudio por teledetección, década a década, nos ofrece la posibilidad de obtener una visión cohesionada de los cambios experimentados por la ciudad, que se contrastan con un análisis granular de los desarrollos específicos que explican la expansión de El Cairo. Destacando los fenómenos urbanos clave en relación con el conjunto, las lógicas que subyacen a la urbanización de este territorio pueden superar un estudio binomial de construido o fértil, ya que los espacios verdes urbanos "mixtos" fomentan el debate sobre la importancia de la restauración del Nilo como corredor verde.

This article explores the urban transformation of Azbakeya in the heart of Central Cairo. Currently identified as a gray transportation hub at the confluence of viaducts and tunnels, it has been a key catalyst for the city’s changes, encapsulating the historical impact of both blue and green infrastructure in the unique context of a desert city. Azbakeya serves as a compelling case study, showcasing relevant shifts in the city’s history: evolving from a formidable lagoon integral to the city’s canals and ponds to its desiccation, emerging to a green center that would be modeled after the finest Parisian parks, just before its decay due to the city’s motorization. Set to reclaim its role as a metropolitan cornerstone, the research informs the present and future of this special piece in Cairo, emphasizing the significance of central nodes in the future of more sustainable, inclusive, and verdant metropolises.

Situada entre el desierto y el valle del Nilo, la zona periurbana de la megalópolis de El Cairo es un caso único de urbanización compleja por la mezcla entre lo planificado y lo informal. A medida que nos alejamos del centro, la ciudad formal se diluye, dando paso a barrios informales compactos que se extienden sobre la misma red de canales y campos que antes había sostenido una ruralidad ahora en retroceso: los canales se transforman en calles, los campos en volúmenes multiformes. Por todas partes, las autopistas atraviesan este exuberante paisaje, y lo contraponen a un tipo de urbanización más global, con complejos urbanos desarticulados y segregados que se expanden sobre el desierto: una mezcla de urbanizaciones de baja densidad, espacios de ocio y equipamientos de todo tipo. El artículo ahonda en el contraste ecosocial y urbano entre estos dos paisajes tan opuestos, como si fueren las dos caras de una misma cinta de casete. La "cara A" representa el crecimiento orgánico de asentamientos informales compactos y comunitarios que invaden los suelos fértiles agrícolas. En cambio, la "cara B" muestra conjuntos urbanos multiformales planificados como pretendidas ciudades en el desierto, actualmente exclusivos sectores monofuncionales servidos por las grandes infraestructuras rodadas. Esta dualidad extrema, entre Nilo y Sáhara, fragua una dicotomía peri-urbana única, que emerge como una megalópolis sin límites.

Topic This research proposes to examine the ecosystemic relationship between the Nile River and the city of Cairo at the turn of the 19th century. It is based on a detailed study of a series of cartographies of the city between the years 1798 and 1801, published in 1809 as part of the monumental Description de l’Égypte. The enterprise, part of Napoleon’s ill-fated Egyptian expedition produced the first accurate maps of major Egyptian cities, and they remain invaluable resources for understanding the urban structure of pre-industrial Cairo, together with accompanning memoirs and drawings. The proposed study redraws and vectorialises selected cartographies to reveal how river and city shaped urban growth and fostered a culture of water through a multi-scale analysis of the diverse ecosystemic spaces of the city and its environment. This culture is reflected in dynamic elements, which are located and analysed in relation to the urban form, such as lagoons that alternated between water bodies and green areas depending on the Nile's seasonal ebb and flow, or the Sabil-Kuttab—elegantly adorned cisterns that provided water to the public on the ground floor and education for children in an adjoining school on the upper floor.