Coast and Nile Delta Regions, the Arab Republic of Egypt

BOX 5.6

Enhancing Climate Change Adaptation in the North Coast and Nile Delta Regions, the Arab Republic of Egypt

The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has identified the Nile delta as one of the world’s three areas most vulnerable to climate change. It faces the threat of flooding of low-lying coastlines from sea-level rise (SLR) and increased storm intensity and frequency. Salinization of land and water resources is expected to have significant impacts on agriculture, fishing, and the availability of freshwater resources.

To improve coastal zone management in the context of SLR, the Arab Republic of Egypt is working with the UN Development Programme (UNDP) on the “Enhancing Climate Change Adaptation in the North Coast and Nile Delta Regions in Egypt” project. Supported by the Green Climate Fund and approved in 2017, the project aims to reduce coastal flooding risks to Egypt’s northern coast due to SLR and extreme storms. The project will address barriers including a lack of high-quality data to inform planning decisions; the absence of a suitable framework for integrated approaches to coastal adaptation; weak institutional coordination to build coastline resilience; issues with the disposal of dredge material that would otherwise be disposed of in the marine environment; and low institutional capacity to anticipate and manage the expected impacts of SLR.

To facilitate transformational change by reducing coastal flooding threats and laying the framework for more sustainable coastal development, the project has two key components: • Development of 69 kilometers of sand-dune dikes along five vulnerable hot spots within the Nile delta. The dikes have been designed to mirror natural coastal features and/or sand dunes and will transform the areas from high-risk to low-risk zones for flooding. They will be stabilized with a combination of rocks and local vegetation species to encourage dune growth by trapping and stabilizing blown sand. Importantly, the coastal protection measures will provide beneficial reuse of dredge material that would otherwise be disposed of in the marine environment.

• A climate change risk-informed integrated coastal zone management (ICZM) plan. The plan will enable high-resolution diagnosis of coastal threats, updated regulatory and institutional frameworks to manage SLR, and a coastal observation system for ongoing data collection and analysis.

Altogether, the program will benefit nearly 800,000 people directly and up to 14 million indirectly in the coastal governorates of Beheira, Dakhalia, Kafr El Sheikh, and Port Said.

The project’s costs will total an estimated US$105 million. Key central government implementing agencies in Egypt include the Ministry of Environment, the Ministry of Agriculture and Land Reclamation, and the Egyptian Meteorological Authority. Research institutes and universities are also involved.

Source: “Enhancing Climate Change Adaptation in the North Coast and Nile Delta Regions in Egypt,” Project FP053, Green Climate Fund, Incheon, Republic of Korea: https://www.greenclimate .fund/project/fp053.