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Application of GIS to describe historical urban development of Kharga City, Egypt
Result and discussion
Historical Land use development: Fig. 1 shows that according to the registration of cadastre- the largest area of total land use is used for palm agriculture and agricultural field during the twentieth century. However, these land uses had been developed only during the fourth and the seventh decades of the last century. This is a fact because in 1958 the first construction caravan had arrived to Kharga and then it was changed into the capital city of the new valley governorat. At that time the urban area of Kharga was limited to the old-Kharga site. Aen AL-Dar well was the main water source for agriculture and drinking in addition to some wells which served as water source for agriculture at Aan AL-Shakh, Aen AL-Gadida, Aen AL-Malek, Aen AL-Kalaa, AL-Berba, and AL-Khalefa. This construction caravan developed the wells and doubled the agricultural land from 2 Km2 to 4 Km2 In addition the palm land was increased from 3.8 Km2 to 4.3 Km2. Since 1970 until now, the extension development of agriculture and palm Standstill and the Kharga oasis have begun to change to city-form. The curve also shows that land-use of public services has developed more than other land uses, the reason for this also is the arrival of construction the caravan. It is quite clear -in Fig. 1- that since 1910 to 2002 the area of houses land-use is nearly equal to the area of streets land-use. In addition, the development of such houses or streets land uses is more homogenous than other land uses where the individual affecting factor has been the rate of increasing population. Fig. 1-A - an enlargement of the lower right corner of Fig. 1- shows that emergency, educational, and management land uses have experienced growth as well as the others.
As shown in Fig. 2 each color degree in the legend of historical land use map indicates one decade and each color in the legend of Kharga Land Use map shows one land use.
During 1900-1920 the Kharga oasis has been divided into two parts, (see 1 in fig.2) the first part is agricultural land beside the monuments at the northward part of the city. The second part is residential land with agricultural land in the southward segment of the city. This is explained by the fact that during 1900-1920 people had continued farming the cultivated area –which was occupied since B.C. till the beginning of the nineteenth century-using the wells beside the monuments and started farming the land beside the residential site. It means that the people’s activity was only farming during this decade.
During 1921-1940 rresidential neighborhood-now named “Old Kharga”- had been built into two parts of the city (see 2) using clay as an appropriate material for the hot climate. The houses assimilated each other. This neighborhood is going vanishing as residents are replacing the old houses by new limited-story buildings without following any planning principles.
Since 1941-1960, with the arrival of first construction caravan, great changes have been occurred in land use areas. Agriculture land use has been extended northward and southward of the city (see 3). The management buildings had built in between the two parts of city (see 4), At the same time the new residential site for caravan of construction had been selected near the management buildings (see 5). The old Kharga neighborhood had extended in all directions (see 6). Durig 1961-1980 Kharga land-use pattern began to become an urbanised area. It started to take the form of a city where the local government developed and created public services, health and luxury facilities and religious places etc. in addition to the residential sites that had grown in all directions of the city (see 7).
During 1981-2002 the land had been registered, as owned by the government. Therefore the residential growth was limited to the roles of the governorat and the residential society under different administrations. In other words, the governorat built the houses by financing through housing bank, then the people dwelt in them and paid the cost of buildings on monthly installment basis. This system was applied on AL-AMAL, AL-Zohur, and AL-Marwa sites (see 8). According to the second system, the governorat specified an area for every residential society, then the society divides the area and specifics parcels for each member who paid the price the of parcel by the way of monthly installment . This system was applied to Engineers’ land, farmers’ land, AL-Slam’s Land, and AL-Mohafza’s land (see 9). Most of these sites are under construction. The industrial and workshops and crafts areas have been specified in west direction around the Kharga-Dakhla road. Some of the parcels have been built, and most of them are under-construction (see 10 in fig.2). In the tourist field, the governorat and private companies have built hotels such as AL-Kharga Hotel, AL-Waha hotel, Hamad Allah Hotel, AL-Dar AL-Bidaa Hotel and AL-Rouad Hotel. Regarding transportation, the governorat has built a railroad system joining Kharga with Safaga on the Red Sea beach for the export of phosphates from Abou Tartour. It also joins the Kharga City with its villages for public travel.
Development of Public activites: Fig. 3 shows that during 1900-1960 the main activity of the people was in the field of agriculture until the change from an oasis to city took place. Then administrative jobs became the main activity of the people, morever, people working in educational services out numbered those working in the agricultural field since 1980s.
Conclusion and recommendation
On the basis of our research presented in this paper we conclude that: though urban planning has used computer model and information system but the local governorat use a traditional methods for the planning process and it also depended on a few inexpert engineers for urban planning of Kharga city. The GIS technique is a powerful tool for analysing the historical urban development.
The year 1958 was turning point for Kharga City when all land use of the city was been developed as well as before. In 1958 the construction caravan developed the wells and doubled the agricultural land from 2 Km2 to 4 Km2. In addition, It increased the palm land from 3.8 Km2 to 4.3 Km2. The main growth direction of Kharga City is northward to southward, the city has grown around two centers: the agricultural land and the archaeological monuments. During the twentieth century the area of houses land uses is nearly equalise the area of streets land uses. Since 1970 until now, the extension development of agriculture and palm Standstill and the Kharga oasis have been undergoing a continuous process of urbanisation. Urban planning management of Kharga City doesn’t obey any planning principles and the land parcels specialisation process can be considered as a random method of land distribution. Thus we strongly recommend that the local government to transfer the urban planning process to such specialists as the National Planning Institute or the universities of planning.
References
- Ahmad K. Alam , 1981, Planning of cities. Cairo, Egypt.
- Anter A. Korin, 1997, Fundamentals and theories of urban planning. Minia, Egypt.
- Ashraf M. S. Mahrous, 1998, Planning and urban design principles of tourist villages. Ms. C. EL-Minia University, Egypt.
- Ashraf M. S. Mahrous, 2002, Using GIS Techniques In Urban Planning Of Desert Cities. Under preparation. Bratislava.
- Henk J. Scholten and John C. H. Stillwell, 1990, Geographic Information Systems for Urban and Regional Planning. Vol. 17 Kluwer Academic Publishers, Netherlands.
- Michael Batty, Martin Dodge, Bin Jiang, and Andy Smith, 1998, GIS and urban design. Center for Advanced Spatial Analysis, London.
Acknowledgements
The authors gratefully thank everybody who, through advice, review, or assistance with the preparation of this paper or the Ph. D. thesis of the first author, have helped tremendously. Ao. Univ. Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Feilmayr graciously extended help and advice in connection the library of the Faculty of Architecture and Planning at Technical University, Vienna, Austria. Similarly, the first author deeply acknowledges advice from received Obrat. Dipl-Ing. Leopold Riedl, at the Faculty of Architecture and Planning at Technical University, Vienna, Austria who helped him during learning the techniques of GIS. The Authors thank Assistant Prof. Dr. Antar A. Korin, at Minia University, Egypt, for sending references, comments, and greatly beneficial advice.
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