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The future of green roofs in Egypt
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Focus areas: Mitigation; Adaptation
Location: Giza, Egypt
Established: September 2011
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Cairo is Egypt’s largest city, with a population of 11 million inhabitants, as with any large urban
location, it is suffering from the environmental problems that this sort of population and growth brings. This
activity would install green-roofs, which are seen as an effective strategy to solve these problems.
Green-roofs are literally that – agricultural growth that takes place on the rooftops mainly in urban
areas. These roofs have many benefits, including mitigating urban heat islands, improving energy efficiency in
buildings, reducing storm water runoff and increasing biodiversity. They can also enhance the lifespan of
roofs.
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Mitigation / Adaptation
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Benefits
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Potential for scaling-up and replication
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This activity is expected to aid in mitigation of air quality problems as well as help with electricity
supply/demand. Air quality measurements in Cairo have shown dangerous levels of lead, carbon dioxide,
sulphur dioxide and other matters due to unregulated vehicle emissions and urban settlements. The
Ministry of Electricity and Energy recently began to institute power cuts as a means of trying to
conserve energy and meet the growing demand. Green roofs, by making buildings much more energy
efficient, may help with energy conversation as well as help with air quality issues.
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Green roof technology offers a wide range of social and economic benefits. Some of these include: storm
water management, reductions in airborne particulate matter as well as moderation of the urban heat
island effect. As a result of these mitigations, communities will gain economic, health and
environmental advantages from this.
A significant portion of the activity will involve retrofitting existing buildings. It has already been
shown that retrofitting for green roofs works in other countries and that knowledge would be
transferable to an Egyptian context.
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In Egypt, soil-less agriculture is already used to grow plants on the roofs of buildings. No direct
planting process on the roof itself, instead the plants are grown on wooden tables, providing a fresh
and healthy source of food. These green-roofs could spread in the country, responsive to climate change
issues. Moreover, many schools are already using this technology.
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Organizations
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AUC - DDC (Educational - Execution);
AUC - SSE (Educational - Consultancy)
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