The Nile Delta: Urbanizing on Diminishing Resources

摘要

The Nile Delta is one of the world's largest river deltas shaped by the interplay of urbanization, agricultural and industrial land uses with an increasing state of urgency defined by water scarcity and pollution, sea-level rise and population increase. For Egypt, it remains the most important source of ecological goods and services, as well as an economic, agricultural and tourism hub. The Delta mirrors the consequences of past and present climate change, anthropogenic transformations, and the socio-ecological dimensions associated with each. Rapidly spreading informal urbanization has taken on an unprecedented dynamic in the absence of enforcement, while projected sea-level rise is turning the Nile Delta into a highly vulnerable coastal region. Dams upriver, most prominently the Renaissance Dam in Ethiopia, will put additional pressure on the territory in terms of sediment transport and actual discharge. In response to rising sea level and diminishing sediment discharge, the Nile Delta will naturally decrease in size. Engineering efforts may delay these processes, but are unlikely to prevent the destruction of the Nile Delta in the coming decades. How should we react to this assumption? What short and long-term strategies are available?