MainDB: An Analysis of the Desertification/Land Degradation-Socioeconomic Nexus in Egypt's Delta Region

Title: An Analysis of the Desertification/Land Degradation-Socioeconomic Nexus in Egypt's Delta Region
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NWPTypeOfOrganization: Civil society
NWPGeographicRegion: Africa
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Good practices and lessons learned: Key beneficial practices and lessons include: 
1. Collective action and capacity building are the most effective ways to combat climate change. 
2. Integration with partners on the national and international levels, academics and scientists from inter-disciplinary fields: economics, agriculture, climate change and GIS have collaborated and produced a comprehensive picture that would not have been possible from one field of study. 
3. Capacity building including mentoring, workshops and training helped to learn advanced research methods, as well as designing policies that can touch local communities and civil society closely. 
4. Updating data and informing government entities that data dissemination is an essential element for development.
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Date of submission: 03/05/2023
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Adaptation element: Adaptation planning and practices; Capacity building; Climate observations; Science and research; Socio-economic data and information; Stakeholder involvement; Vulnerability assessment
Adaptation sector/theme: Agriculture; Food security; Coastal areas/zones; Community-based adaptation
Climate hazard: Desertification; Increasing temperatures; Land and forest degradation; Salinization; Sea level rise
Country: Egypt
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Description: The Nile Delta is a main source of agricultural production for Egypt yet it is amongst the world’s most vulnerable areas to climate change. The region comprises 11 governorates including Beheira – one of Egypt’s largest Delta governorates, and Alexandria– Egypt’s largest coastal governorate and second-largest city. Beheira and Alexandria are facing risks including sea level rise, desertification and urban encroachment on agricultural lands all of which are impacting national agricultural production.
 
Hence, this research aimed at exploring the socioeconomic impacts of desertification/land degradation in Alexandria and Beheira and propose an actionable policy plan to support decision-making and subsequent implementation.
 
The research sought to address two knowledge gaps indentifed under the Lima Adaptation Knowledge Initiative (LAKI) — gaps (10 and 11) identified for the North Africa sub-region; (10): Insufficient information and knowledge about interconnections between desertification and socio-economic development, (11): Limited information and knowledge sharing on interlinkages with other sectors.
 
The following methodology was followed to accomplish the aim of the research: 
Adopting the MEDALUS-GEE approach to calculate the Environmental Sensitivity Index (ESI), a proxy for desertification/ land degradation. 
The Ricardian Approach using the Seemingly Unrelated Regression (SUR) to examine the economic impacts of climate change on agricultural revenue (aggregated from the five main crops) on the governorate level. 
Assessing the interlinkages between the desertification/ land degradation and socioeconomic development on the individual level through employing Principal Components Analysis (PCA) on the ESI sub-indices, then running Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) to regress the wealth index of individuals on land degradation, along with other explanatory variables.
Expected outcome:
Further information: This case study is the outcome of a graduate student Research Project at The British University in Egypt (BUE). The graduate student team is the first group of students at BUE to partner with the UNFCCC Secretariat through the Nairobi Work Programme to address two of the knowledge gaps identified through the Lima Adaptation Knowledge Initiative (LAKI) in the North Africa subregion. This project was executed under the auspices of the UN Climate Change and Universities Partnership Programme.
 
Students: 
Maha Balbaa (Email: Maha155981@bue.edu.eg)
 
Remah Ibrahim (Email: Remah166026@bue.edu.eg)
 
Sameh Mansour (Email: Sameh188846@bue.edu.eg)
 
Advisors: 
Professor. Hoda Hassaballa (Email: Hoda.Hassaballa@bue.edu.eg)
 
Associate Professor. Maha Elhini (Email: Maha.Elhini@bue.edu.eg)
NWPGeographicScope: Local
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NWPInformationType: Case study
NWPJoinDate: 04/06/2023
NWPPartner: The British University in Egypt
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Target group: Academics and scientists; Communities; Policy makers; Practitioners
NWPWorkStream: NWP
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NWPOutcome: A memo (in Arabic) was submitted to the Ministry of Agriculture and Land Reclamation highlighting the key project outcomes. The memo included an analysis of the ESI maps, a recommendation of crops to soil suitability, socio-economic policy action to improve communication between farmers and government entities as well as mapping ESI to socioeconomic characteristics of individuals on the district level.
 
The ESI maps indicated that most of the districts of Alexandria are unsuitable for farming owing to their proximity to the Mediterranean Sea, and the nature of the industrial activity located there. Recommended actions include modifying the region’s strategy, by converting it into fish farming (aquaculture) rather than agriculture. The results indicated that the highest degree of land degradation and desertification (>1.530: CAA3 (HSL)) is concentrated in the Beheira Governorate, specifically the Qattara Depression area and Wadi Al-Maghra (representing 46 percent) of the total area of the hinterland of the Beheira Governorate. Several suggested treatments are also proposed to reduce the impact of soil degradation and productivity in the long term.
 
On the other hand, a Vulnerability Assessment including a mapping of the socioeconomic status of individuals on the district level in both governorates to the environmental sensitivity index found that the areas most affected by land degradation have the lowest socioeconomic status. For instance, Dalangat is the most sensitive district to land degradation in Beheira, which is also characterized by relatively lower agricultural revenue, the lowest wealth index, as well as the lowest average years of schooling.
 
In Alexandria, the Mena El-Basal district is the most sensitive area to land degradation and is also characterized by the lowest wealth index, the lowest average years of schooling, a higher-than-average household size of approximately 6 people, and high population density, leading to high urban sprawl in that area.
Therefore, the proposed policy action would be designing customized interventions for the most affected areas and highly stressed on avoiding the “One Size fits all” approach.
 
A detailed elaboration of the project will be available as a journal paper to be updated here.

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Implementing partners: 1) Soil, Water, and Environment Research Institute, Ministry of Agriculture and Land Reclamation
Dr. Mohamed El Sayed Abou Kota, Researcher in physicochemical Soil sciences (Email: aboukota.m@gmail.com);
Dr. Shimaa Kamal Ganzour, Assistant Professor of Soil Sciences and Spatial Techniques (Email: sh.ganzour82@gmail.com);
 
2) Central Agency For Public Mobilization & Statistics (CAPMAS)
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SourceItemID: 2493
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NWPTypeOfKnowledge: Technical document/report
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Created at 06/04/2023 07:00 by crmmocservices
Last modified at 03/05/2023 17:10 by Lilian Daphine Lunyolo
 
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