Water Sensitive Landscape Case Study: Public Open Green Spaces in Naser City, Egypt

The purpose of this paper is to reveal measures to lower water demand and consumption of public green spaces in arid environments such as Cairo city while maintaining a pleasant appearance. The Water Sensitive Urban Design approach is adopted to formulate a checklist in order to evaluate the extent to which public green spaces in “Naser City” district, participate in preserving water quality and quantity. After analyzing six case studies, the study concluded that the main problems are using high-quality water to irrigate green spaces, and the gardeners’ reckless irrigation and maintenance techniques. Short term solutions were proposed, such as utilizing low flow irrigation system, minimizing the lawn areas, integrating water meters, using mulching and incorporating a competent maintenance schedule. Long term solutions mainly focused on replacing potable water with treated wastewater, which is estimated to cover irrigation needs for all green areas in the district.