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Catchment and Coastal Environments Research Group Postgraduate project Investigation into land-use change in two contrasting areas in the Nile Delta of Egypt Rawad Echtaie Room 201, 12 Kirkby Place T: +44 (0) 1752 233090 F: +44 (0) 1752 233054 Director of studies: Dr Andrew Williams Other PhD advisors: Professor Geoff Wilson Rawad was awarded his Masters’ degree from Egypt in 2002. His project’s title was: “the role of women in developing small industries in some rural areas of Assiut governorate”. He has been awarded a scholarship from University of Damascus to develop his PhD studies at University of Plymouth. The title of his PhD is “Investigation into landuse change in two contrasting areas in the Nile Delta of Egypt”. Introduction The research question addressed in this project focuses on land-use change in the eastern part of the Nile Delta of Egypt (See attached map). Understanding land-use change has been particularly important in arid and semi-arid regions, where agricultural land is limited, and where food security and agricultural production are facing 1 many constrains such as lack or even absence of precipitation, poor quality soils and increasing population growth. Research aim and objectives The thesis aims to examine the application of the DPSIR (driving forces, pressures, state, impacts, and responses) framework for better understanding of agricultural land-use change in the rural-urban fringe in the eastern part of the Nile Delta of Egypt. The study will, first, provide a theoretical understanding of key factors that determine land-use change in the Nile River Delta of Egypt, and, second, investigate the relationships between these factors and land-use change. To address these aims the study has the following objectives: 1. To analyse patterns of land-use change in the eastern part of the Nile Delta over the past two decades using remote sensing information and other land-use data. 2. To investigate the importance of the different components of the DPSIR framework (driving forces, pressures, state and responses) for explaining land-use change in the eastern part of the Nile Delta. 3. To analyse the inter-relationships of components of the DPSIR framework for the eastern part of the Nile Delta. 4. To evaluate and critique the application of DPSIR as a conceptual framework to assess land-use change in the rural-urban fringe of arid areas more generally. Research methods used in this study The research addressed in this thesis has used a case study approach as a key methodological step. The study has used five different sources of data in order to meet the objectives of the research. These data are: 1. remote sensing data (using ERDAS Imagine 8.7 software) 2. a questionnaire data 3. interviews with farmers and local experts from the two study areas 4. participant observation 5. census data (Population growth, crop production, crop area and productivity) Preliminary results The Initial results suggested that transportation cost, private source subsidies, farmers’ educational level, and role of women in the agricultural production are the most important driving forces that affect land-use change in the research region. These results have confirmed the hypothesis of multi-causality theory in the explanation of the DPSIR model used as a conceptual framework for this research. 2