Urban and population characteristics on both sides of the lower Nile River in Egypt

Abstract

The flood plain and its extent left its mark on the numerical size of the residential areas, and the proportion between them was directly proportional, as the residential areas west of the river were more numerous and larger in population size compared to their counterparts east of the river, and there were differences in population and area (as the most important indicators of measurement), along the flood plain in the governorates of the study area. Most of the new cities planned east of the Nile River have recently been established parallel to their counterparts, the mother cities located west of the river. The establishment of these cities may be the beginning of increasing the construction east of the Nile at the present time and in the future, as they are the first attempts to establish urban development aimed at destabilizing the population density in the Nile Valley. This was facilitated by the construction of overpasses on the Nile River opposite these cities. The study examines the extent of the balance of urbanization and population east of the Nile and west of the river through complementary axes east of the river: such as controlled growth through dry valleys, as well as other alternatives; such as completing the cities and villages of the longitudinal axis of the Red Sea coast by activating the residential areas on the coast. This helps to achieve balance through new supporting factors, such as developments in the process of desalination of seawater, or the exploitation of new economic resources, or research into a new administrative amendment for the valley governorates.