XERISCAPING: A GREENING APPROACH FOR FACING WATER-SCARCITY IN ARID CITIES The case of Egypt

Abstract

There is no doubt that green spaces provide the urban environments with an important asset, however the water-scarcity issues that is facing many urban settlements, Egypt is one of these places that is not only suffering from the rareness of green spaces, but the water scarcity issues as well, these issues have arose to the surface in the last several years forced the municipality's supply of these green spaces to decline dramatically. Xeriscaping is one of the methods that is used to challenge such scarcity, it is a method of gardening that doesn’t sacrifice beauty to conserve water, Xeriscaping (zer-i-scaping) is a water conservation technique that first originated in 1981 by the Denver water department. It is a 7 step landscaping method which aims at using drought-tolerant plants among a series of other steps to protect the environment. Water scarcity is a spreading phenomenon that affects all sectors of the community and threatens the sustainability of the resources. The “Water consumption versus water scarcity” reality in Egypt emphasizes the importance of following procedures for water conservation, and this could be tackled through a water-wise practice such as “Xeriscaping”. This paper summarizes the significance of Xeriscaping, its major characteristics; it aims at forming a framework which could be considered a counter measurement technique to mitigate the water scarcity phenomenon which is crippling the Egyptian economy.