“…For example, our analysis revealed that Egypt has 77.1% intact land, but only 10.8% of its PA network is connected. Even though there are large PAs within this nation, including El-Gelf El-Keber (48,523 km 2 ) and Elba (36,600 km 2 ), major roads, agriculture, and urban sprawl are increasingly fragmenting the landscape 51 . Fig.…”
Land free of direct anthropogenic disturbance is considered essential for achieving biodiversity conservation outcomes but is rapidly eroding. In response, many nations are increasing their protected area (PA) estates, but little consideration is given to the context of the surrounding landscape. This is despite the fact that structural connectivity between PAs is critical in a changing climate and mandated by international conservation targets. Using a high-resolution assessment of human pressure, we show that while ~40% of the terrestrial planet is intact, only 9.7% of Earth’s terrestrial protected network can be considered structurally connected. On average, 11% of each country or territory’s PA estate can be considered connected. As the global community commits to bolder action on abating biodiversity loss, placement of future PAs will be critical, as will an increased focus on landscape-scale habitat retention and restoration efforts to ensure those important areas set aside for conservation outcomes will remain (or become) connected.
“…For example, our analysis revealed that Egypt has 77.1% intact land, but only 10.8% of its PA network is connected. Even though there are large PAs within this nation, including El-Gelf El-Keber (48,523 km 2 ) and Elba (36,600 km 2 ), major roads, agriculture, and urban sprawl are increasingly fragmenting the landscape 51 . Fig.…”
Land free of direct anthropogenic disturbance is considered essential for achieving biodiversity conservation outcomes but is rapidly eroding. In response, many nations are increasing their protected area (PA) estates, but little consideration is given to the context of the surrounding landscape. This is despite the fact that structural connectivity between PAs is critical in a changing climate and mandated by international conservation targets. Using a high-resolution assessment of human pressure, we show that while ~40% of the terrestrial planet is intact, only 9.7% of Earth’s terrestrial protected network can be considered structurally connected. On average, 11% of each country or territory’s PA estate can be considered connected. As the global community commits to bolder action on abating biodiversity loss, placement of future PAs will be critical, as will an increased focus on landscape-scale habitat retention and restoration efforts to ensure those important areas set aside for conservation outcomes will remain (or become) connected.
“…Although the industrial policy is to create new cities and industrial zones outside of the Nile Valley and Delta, there is still a lot of industrial development in the delta as well. Moreover, through a rapidly spreading informal urbanization [19], there is increasing land fragmentation [20], which has an indirect effect on the water system. The extensive urban network of cities, villages, and connecting roads influences the irrigation networks due to excessive fragmentation.…”
Section: Effect Of Urbanization and Infrastructure In The Deltamentioning
"Egypt is a gift of the Nile," wrote Herodotus, and indeed, without the Nile there would be no Egypt as the world knows it. Egypt is mainly dependent on the flow in the Nile River (with an agreed share of 55.5 BCM) and it receives about 1.3 BCM rainfall annually (mainly along the north coast). The overall water use efficiency is already high, due to e.g., water scarcity and reuse of drainage water. Egypt's water resources are managed by the Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation (MWRI), with agriculture as by far the largest user of irrigation water, with a share of about 85%. The purpose of the paper is to discuss the major issues and challenges in the spatial and temporal allocation of water, in relation to a free cropping pattern and the characteristics of the irrigation system. We conclude that the current world-wide call for "crop-demand-based precision irrigation supply" will not be easily attainable in Egypt. Instead, "water security" in the form of "guaranteed or agreed" water supply may be a preferred water allocation aim for various reasons, including lack of large storage possibilities, impossibility of fine-tuning supplies in the system, and the needed capacity to deal with (future) droughts. Although the paper concentrates on technical issues, it is increasingly realized that the challenges are not only of a technical nature and that there is a need for integration of policies as well as a need to establish effective science-business-policy interfaces at the national level.
“…The interaction between urban and agricultural landscapes was investigated by Alfiky et al . (). The authors studied the situation in the Nile Delta with a focus on the indirect effects of land fragmentation due to the extensive urban network of cities, villages and connecting roads on agricultural aspects, e.g.…”
Sustainable increases in water productivity and water use efficiency at different levels can be achieved by optimizing water uses that are suitable for local farmers, especially those who own small-scale farms. There has been continuous land fragmentation mainly due to land inheritance over generations. A historical assessment of land fragmentation (1994)(1995)(1996)(1997)(1998)(1999)(2000)(2001)(2002)(2003)(2004)(2005)(2006)(2007)(2008)(2009)(2010)(2011)(2012)(2013) was evaluated in relation to water management such as pump operation hours. In the Nile Delta, 90% of farm areas are less than 2.1 ha and 59% of these are small-scale areas, ≤0.42 ha. Those small-scale farmers decide on crop patterns and are mainly dependent on the rice crop, which yields the highest net profit income. As a result of land fragmentation, the total number of irrigation events in 2013 was higher than in 2006 and is higher than the number of irrigation events of 1994. Therefore, the total water applied for irrigating crops in 2013 was higher than 2006 (+10.5%) and 1994 (+12.6%). Currently, farmers tend to irrigate their fields for longer periods due to land fragmentation. It is suggested that irrigation improvement as well as a farm contracting system could be the best countermeasures to mitigate the impact of land fragmentation and decrease water losses.
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