Tuesday, October 12, 2010

SITE ANALYSIS ...THEORITICALLY speaking

Weather
One of the advantages of New Cairo is that its weather is much cooler than downtown Cairo, approximately 5 degrees Celsius lower.[citation needed] This makes New Cairo only slightly hot during summer, and quite cold during winter, when highs reach an average of around 14 degrees and lows around 1 degree. Frost is a regular winter phenomenon in New Cairo.[citation needed] Heavy fog is also common. Low winter temperatures are due in part to the altitude of new Cairo, which ranges between 250 meters and 350 meters above sea level. A rapid cooling at night which is characteristic of desert environments also occurs in New Cairo. The contrast to Cairo is also exaggerated due to Cairo's urban heat island effect.


Neighborhoods
El Shrouq City is one luxury project established in New Cairo. With its clean roads the area has attracted many residential and commercial inhabitants. Among the many successful projects of El Shrouq City are Mayfair, Shrouq 2000, Beverly Hills and Wadi el Misk. Many of the Villas and mansions in these projects have prices in the multi-million Egyptian pound range, with a minimum cost of 2.5 million Egyptian pounds. Two schools are located in El Shrouq City: The British Columbian Canadian International School, and the British School of El Shrouq. Both schools are new and making their mark in Egypt's educational system, especially the BCCIS. A new British curriculum school is under construction in Madinaty City and scheduled to open in September 2010. the British School Madinaty will be operated by its sister school The British School Al Rehab but offer an international dimension including English courses for non speakers to allow them to access the school. Further information can be viewed at [1] and [2]
Rehab City is another project in New Cairo. Rehab City has many shopping malls as well as a cinema complex. Real estate giants the Talaat Mostafa Group developed Rehab City as well as Madinaty and Mayfair.
Many future projects have been planned in New Cairo, the biggest and most expensive being Madinaty, which is adjacent to El Shrouq City. When completed in 2011, Madinaty will double the current population of New Cairo.
Because of the rapid growth of population in New Cairo an expansion to the Suez desert road will occur in early 2009.

Urban heat island
From Wikipedia(View original Wikipedia Article) Last modified on 21 September 2010, at 23:23 
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Tokyo, an example of an urban heat island. Normal temperatures of Tokyo go up more than those of the surrounding area.
An urban heat island (UHI) is a metropolitan area which is significantly warmer than its surrounding rural areas. The phenomenon was first investigated and described by Luke Howard in the 1810s, although he was not the one to name the phenomenon.[1] The temperature difference usually is larger at night than during the day, and is most apparent when winds are weak. Seasonally, UHI is seen during both summer and winter. The main cause of the urban heat island is modification of the land surface by urban development which uses materials which effectively retain heat. Waste heat generated by energy usage is a secondary contributor. As population centers grow they tend to modify a greater and greater area of land and have a corresponding increase in average temperature. The lesser-used term heat island refers to any area, populated or not, which is consistently hotter than the surrounding area.[2]
Monthly rainfall is greater downwind of cities, partially due to the UHI. Increases in heat within urban centers increases the length of growing seasons, and decreases the occurrence of weak tornadoes. Increases in the death rate during heat waves has been shown to increase by latitude due to the urban heat island effect.[citation needed] The UHI decreases air quality by increasing the production of pollutants such as ozone, and decreases water quality as warmer waters flow into area streams, which stresses their ecosystems.
Not all cities have a distinct urban heat island. Mitigation of the urban heat island effect can be accomplished through the use of green roofs and the use of lighter-colored surfaces in urban areas, which reflect more sunlight and absorb less heat. Despite concerns raised about its possible contribution to global warming, comparisons between urban and rural areas show that the urban heat island effects have little influence on global mean temperature trends.[3] Recent qualitative speculations indicate that urban thermal plumes may contribute to variation in wind patterns that may influence the melting of arctic ice packs and thereby the cycle of ocean current.[4]

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