Abstract
The Egyptian urban system is mainly characterized by rapid urbanization, urban concentration and urban primacy. Greater Cairo Region (GCR) is inhabited by almost 22.8 million people, counting for around 25% of the Country’s total population. Moreover, governmental policies concluded that the country’s growth and urbanization rate would pose an enormous pressure on the agricultural land, threatening national food security. Therefore, desert developments have increasingly preoccupied the national development discourse and the desert became the development frontier to accommodate its growing population. Moreover, a ’new cities’ policy was initiated to establish new cities with independent economic base to attract people out of the Nile valley. Accordingly, national urban development corridors, such as coastal frontiers, were identified and prioritized for development. The Northwestern Coast of Egypt has been playing an integral part of this national strategy. New cities, touristic developments and expansion of existing urban cores were all included in the regional plans. However, the Northwestern Coast barely attracted permanent population despite the investments. In order to rectify the current situation, the government announced the establishment of yet another new city, Alamein New City, an “Eco/Green City” of the fourth generation. The city is attached to the existing Alamein city with access to the shore, one of the few remaining unbuilt areas along the coast and is often branded as a showcase of a new ‘new city’ model. The thesis hypothesizes that new cities as a national development policy within the territorial development of the Northwestern Coast, with Alamein New City as a case study, can mitigate urban primacy, control the prevailing rapid urban growth and maintain social justice. After analyzing several developments along the Northwestern Coast and the progress of Al Alamein New City, the research concludes that, new cities, as a ‘modernist’ solution to urbanizing communities, need a strong political, social and economic base to build upon and eventually succeed. In contradiction, within the current confinements in Egypt, the gradual expansion and densification of existing urban settlements could be a more effective development discourse.
