جامعة الاقــصى - غزة
AL-AQSA UNIVERSITY - GAZA
AL-AQSA UNIVERSITY - GAZA
Unit of Urban Studies (UUS)
Urban sprawl is increasing constantly in most cities of the world, but often there is an extra land on the surroundings of these cities that governments permit annexation of land to meet the people's need. However, the issue of urban planning in the Gaza Strip is tragically different, and has become more complicated over time, as Gaza Strip is a small fixed piece of land (365 km2) with the absence of any additional surroundings land to be annexed to the cities in the Gaza Strip, Moreover, increasing of the population density to be one of the highest measures around the world by reaching more than 5,000 individual peer km2.
Urbanization in the Gaza Strip increases dramatically while urban planning has become incapacitated and disproportionate to the reality of change in land use as well as in urban growth rate which is expected to reach 48% of Gaza's total area in 2025, compared to the year 2000 ( 19%). Urban sprawl has become a serious problem where consumes land ( with rate 590 acres per year) on the expense of agricultural area, even with the limitations conditions for construction processes within the Gaza Strip, it is expected that urban sprawl will double after the pace of these limitations. It has become clear that the techniques, tools and data used ten years ago is not enough to achieve the proper and effective urban planning today.
The world is evolving faster than ever, with great strides in the field of surveying technology, we have great hope to import such surveying technologies to the Gaza Strip, as well as to play a role in making geospatial data available (imageries of airborne and satellite borne data), as well as software, geospatial techniques, specialized and human resources to follow-up the urban transformation and change. UUS aims to stimulate the sustainable urban planning. The planning and management of urban areas is a complex task which can not be controlled without the use of powerful analytical tools (e.g. geographic information systems and remote sensing techniques) and detailed geospatial data, which can observe higher resolution details of changes urban mixed land use environment.
Geospatial data center(GDC) for education, research and development - Al-Aqsa University, is one of the research centers which is established in order to promote the contributions of geospatial data and technologies in urban studies throughout UUS, in the Gaza Strip. UUS focuses on exploring the multi-spatial dimensions of the urbanization problems on the Gaza Strip, in order to have more inclusive understanding of the urban environment problems. USU works to strengthen cooperation between universities, research centers and the relevant ministries to activate the scientific and developmental research on urban and urbanization studies, such researches are solely based on the geospatial data and technology (GIS, air-borne and space-borne remote sensing, GPS, and modern field surveys ) to link scientific research in the field of urbanization studies with the development of the geospatial technics to serve the urban environment health within the Gaza Strip.
UUS seeks to employ modern geospatial techniques and software as well as different types of geospatial data sets in urban studies and urban planning. Which is considered as a powerful tools for monitoring, storage, analysis and modeling of urban data of transformation and change, as well as to detect the layout pattern and the behavior of land use in certain period of time. Fortunately, such geospatial techniques and data can be applied to a wide range of urban problems related to the urban health, the sustainable planning of urban environment and providing sustainable services inside cities. Resultantly, to help in land-use planning, mapping services for developmental sectors, urban growth management, urban policies analysis and draw alternative perceptions and scenarios urban land use. Those tasks are supported by results comparisons and recommend possible favorites, which helps decision-makers to be well informed on the status of urban development.
UUS focuses on tasks such as geospatial data collection, processing and archiving in various areas of urban and urbanization studies. The geospatial data is stored in a geographic digital formats (georeferenced geographic databases) in a special data repository for the urban geospatial data (SDI), which allows for online - data sharing with other interested institutions and individuals in the applications of geospatial data in urban studies. These data are the backbone for evaluation and monitoring of related effects on urban environment health, Consequently, produce scientific scenarios and forecasts of the environmental impact in future, such scenarios are important and effective tool for the spatial planning of urban environment health and urban sustainable development.
GDC- UUS is ready to cooperate with local and international partners who are involved in urban and urbanizations studies within the Gaza Strip, to assist in the collection and management of geospatial data, as well as for the assessment of developing strategies for observing, monitoring, modeling and spatial analyzing of specific components effecting the urban environment health, Consequently, assist in mapping urban development priorities, using multiple scenarios approaches.
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Consulting Members |
Specialization |
interests |
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1 |
Prof. Dr. Yousef Abu Mayla CV |
Hydrology |
Hydrological Studies |
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2 |
Dr. Abdelkader Hamad |
Geography of Tourism |
Urban Studies - Services and Development |
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3 |
Dr. Wiesam Essa CV |
Remote Sensing |
Applications of Remote Sensing |
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4 |
Dr. Maher Al-Bahasi CV |
Hydrology (GIS Modeling) |
Hydrological Studies |
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5 |
Dr. Ahmed El-Dahdouh |
Applied Climatology |
The Impact of Climate on Tourism |
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6 |
Dr. Halla Harazeen |
Environmental Studies |
The Impact of Urbanization on Environment |
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7 |
M.Sc. Manar El-Qadi |
Urban Geography |
Urbanization Studies. |
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8 |
Eng. Sami Abu Fakher CV |
Construction Engineering and GIS specialist. |
Applications of GIS |
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9 |
Eng. Ala Ersan |
Civil Engineer |
Greening Urban Environment |
