An Ancient City’s Sprawl

The term “urban sprawl” might conjure up images of Newark or Houston, but the dense, chaotic outskirts of Cairo, Egypt present a planning nightmare on a different scale.

This summer, Alicia G. Harley ’08 investigated the possible environmental, economic, and social effects of different proposals to alleviate sprawl around Cairo, an ancient city facing the paradoxes of modern urban development.

According to Harley, complex zoning laws have in part caused middle and lower-class Egyptians to construct many “illegal” residences squeezed next to each other on arable land. The problems associated with sprawl affect all Cairenes, since these “suburbs” occupy land that could be used to feed Egypt’s swelling population. Cairo is Africa’s largest city.

After interviewing politicians and the urban poor, Harley, an environmental science and public policy concentrator who conducted the research for her senior thesis, said she believes that the city’s growth is “inevitable.”

“For the past 50 years, [policy makers] have put their heads under the covers, so it’s turned into a bit of a disaster,” the Kirkland House resident said. “But if you pro actively plan the city, you can make it a good city for the people living in it, and for the environment.”

In recent decades, the Egyptian government has made efforts to build and populate towns in the desert, which would free up valuable agricultural land in the Nile delta. It is one of four urban development plans that Harley evaluated based on the criteria of long-term environmental, economic, and social sustainability.

“One option Cairo has is to look at its history for solutions,” she said. “Some older desert suburbs [such as Heliopolis] were successful. Studying success stories can help planners understand what worked and how to replicate that.”

However, Harley was quick to emphasize that the purpose of her study is not to decide for Cairo its best chance at a sustainable future.

“That’s for Egyptians to do,” she said.

After graduation, Harley plans to return to Egypt for a year before applying to graduate school to revisit the questions raised by her research or to work for an environmental consulting company.

—Staff writer Athena Y. Jiang can be reached at ajiang@fas.harvard.edu.

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