amr gouda

Rapid urbanization has turned into a problematic phenomenon laying negative effects on the Middle Eastern cities and their peripheries. Although fast increase in urban population of the countries of the region has been well-researched, the connections to urban development strategies and patterns are being neglected. This paper examines the time coincidence of some of the dominant planning trends of the past decades that are considered to be associated with the intensive urban population changes. The paper attempts to discuss over the points in which the three countries witnessed significant increase and decrease in fertility rates. For that, the data of the World Bank have been applied. The graphs seen in this paper have been produced by the Google public data from the World Bank website, which provides the possibility of separating urban and rural populations. The descriptive analysis of this study shows that these vigorous changes of population growth rates have been more powerful...

The circumstances of urban sprawl in the Middle Eastern cities have been basically examined; now we are aware of the existence of a crawling sprawl in the growth pattern of the region’s cities. Nevertheless, the extent and the causes of this phenomenon have not yet been clearly explained. Thus, two questions are still unanswered: (1) to what extent are the Middle Eastern cities sprawled?, (2) what are the main drivers of sprawl in the Middle East? This paper brings together several evidences from international and the national languages to provide explanation to the above. The findings show that urban and suburban sprawl is an inclusive pattern seen in a wide variety of city sizes, planning concepts, times, etc. Sprawl is not limited to large metropolitan areas; mid-sized and small cities of the region are also sprawling. Furthermore, administrative and planning reasons are the strongest causes of urban sprawl in the region.