Author(s)

M. Salem

Abstract

Although there is no consensus on the definition of the peri-urban areas, there is growing recognition among development professionals that rural and urban features tend to increasingly co-exist within cities and beyond their limits. This research discusses the peri-urban area through reviewing previous literature. In addition, to define the criteria of delimitation of peri-urban areas in light of those literatures, therefore, delimitation of peri-urban areas of Greater Cairo.

Peri-urban areas of the Greater Cairo Region (GCR) represent 24% of the region’s population. However, there is no urban planning or land management carried out by the government in those areas. Furthermore, these areas are expected to be a part of a metropolitan area of Greater Cairo within a few years, because of urban sprawl of the metropolis and urbanization dynamics in these areas Therefore, peri-urban areas can either make a great contribution to the urban development of the GCR or become a new belt of slums surrounding the region, according to the procedures of dealing with it.

Moreover, this paper aims to examine the key factors of the urbanization process in peri-urban areas of the GCR through correlation analysis between those factors and the urbanization indicators in those areas. In addition, to discuss the appropriate procedures for managing land uses in those areas. The findings of this research confirmed that the percentage of non-agriculture workers, percentage of illiterate, and the existing regional services are the most important factors in the process of the urbanization process in peri-urban areas of the GCR.

Keywords

peri-urban area, urbanization process, land use dynamics, metropolitan region, Greater Cairo Region