Trapped between antiquity and urbanism - a multi-criteria assessment model of the greater cairo metropolitan area

This paper attempts to provide systematic policy information regarding land-use/landcover change in the vicinity of the Giza Pyramids in Egypt. As a result of the rapid urban growth Cairo has experienced in the last couple of decades, a surrounding enclave of urban development seems to be forming around the Pyramids and the highly-valued historical legacy of the area, designated in 1979 as a World Heritage site. Hence, assessing land-use changes and future urban sprawl prediction is of major importance for strategic planning and avoiding further endangerment. The data used in this study are derived from remote sensing imagery, taken by Landsat TM satellite on 31 August 1972 and on 20 September 1984 and Landsat ETM+ imagery from 11 November 2000. The use of the different bands of that imagery allowed the classification of the land-cover classes: Urban, Vegetation, Desert, and Water. A temporal comparison of the different types of landcover indicates which land-use changes that have occurred over the years considered are associated with the potential for endangering the Giza complex in the study area.