AASTMT workshop on Adaptation to Climate Change and Natural Disasters in the Coastal Cities of North Africa on 15- 16 June 2010

With in the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between The World Bank and the Arab Academy for Science, Technology and Maritime Transport (AASTMT), which was signed in July 2009, As on the sidelines of the project of developing a strategy and an action plan for Alexandria City Adaptation, which was started on August 2009, a workshop was held on 15- 16 June 2010 at AASTMT- Miami Campus– Alexandria.

The aforementioned Strategy is a part of the World Bank regional study on climate change and natural disasters preparedness in the coastal cities of North Africa, that are mostly affected by the climate change as Alexandria in Egypt, Tunis in Tunisia as Casablanca and Wadi BouRegreg in Morocco.

The workshop aimed at presenting the preliminary results of Alexandria city study (1st phase), which included the evaluation of the city major weaknesses and the expected impacts of the climate change and the risks of natural disasters through the collection of data and different information concerning the environmental climate, marine, water resources, topography, coastal, seismic and economic characteristics, then analyzing them to be uploaded on geographical maps (GIS), for the purpose of evaluating the climate change and assuming the expected impacts on the city by 2030, so that an Adaptation strategy for Alexandria City can be performed with the increased risks of climate change to be able to cope with the natural disasters when they occur.

It is worth mentioning that this project is implemented through the integration of a group of French companies with the cooperation of the expertise and resources of the Arab Academy for Science, Technology and Maritime Transport (AASTMT), and the European Space Agency support.
As this project is implemented by the support and assistance of various governmental Organizations such as Ministry of Environmental Affairs, Environmental Affairs Sector, Ministry of Housing, Utilities & Urban Development, General Authority for Urban Planning, Alexandria Governorate, In addition to a number of non-governmental Organizations.