Impacts of Rapid Urban Expansion on Peri-Urban Landscapes in the Global South: Insights from Landscape Metrics in Greater Cairo

Muhammad Salem () and Naoki Tsurusaki
Additional contact information
Muhammad Salem: Faculty of Urban and Regional Planning, Cairo University, Giza 12613, Egypt
Naoki Tsurusaki: Faculty of Human-Environment Studies, Kyushu University, Fukuoka 819-0395, Japan

Sustainability, 2024, vol. 16, issue 6, 1-16

Abstract: Cities in the Global South are experiencing profound demographic shifts, rapid economic growth, and unchecked urban sprawl, resulting in significant transformations in peri-urban landscapes. This paper focuses on assessing the impacts of chaotic urban expansion in the peri-urban areas (PUAs) of Greater Cairo (GC), serving as a notable case study in the Global South. By analyzing satellite imagery from 2001, 2011, and 2021, this study examines changes in land use/cover (LUC) within GC’s PUAs. Employing five landscape metrics—Landscape Expansion Index (LEI), Percentage of Landscape (PLAND), Fractal Dimension Index (FDI), Mean Patch Size (MPS), and Largest Patch index (LPI)—the research elucidates the adverse effects of unplanned urban expansion in GC’s PUAs. The analysis reveals a substantial loss of over 51 thousand hectares of arable land, raising concerns about food security in the region. Notably, the LEI identifies edge expansion as the predominant urban expansion pattern, while PLAND, FDI, and LPI metrics underscore landscape fragmentation within the peri-urban landscape. These findings have significant implications for authorities and researchers engaged in sustainable development efforts in PUAs. This study lays a crucial foundation for the formulation of successful management strategies to mitigate the adverse consequences of unplanned urban expansion in the PUAs of GC and similar regions worldwide.

Keywords: peri-urbanization; urban sprawl; land use/cover change; landscape pattern; urban expansion index; Greater Cairo (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/16/6/2316/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/16/6/2316/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:16:y:2024:i:6:p:2316-:d:1355108

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().