SOCIAL VARIABLES LEADING TO URBAN DISTORTION CASE STUDY ON A GROUP OF EGYPTIAN CITIES

The study aimed to identify the phenomenon of Social variables leading to urban distortion. The study was applied on a sample of three cities in the Delta (Shebin El-Koum - Ashmon - Benha). This study belongs to the descriptive type of studies, using the social survey through a random sample of (200) items distributed on three cities using the questionnaire form. The researchers relied on some statistical methods, including (T) test, frequencies, ratios and correlation coefficients.
The study reached to a number of results as follows: there are some causes and factors that led to the urban distortion such as: the increase in population density, deterioration of public services in some areas especially; health, education, water and other services, in addition to, the deterioration of the urban structure and its fragility. The study also displayed that the emergence of the Military Governor's Law at the end of this period No. 1 of 1996, with the prohibition of building on the agricultural land, except in the narrowest extent of building or using it for non-agriculture, led to moving to the cities and building in random ways. The study also showed that the economic openness which started in the 1970s in the real estate market was very high, in addition to the tendency of the Egyptians working abroad to invest in real estate especially in the urban districts. The results of the study also indicated that the high level living and the emergence of migration returning from the Arab Gulf countries to invest their revenue in urban expansion, which in turn encouraged the construction outside the old block which is crowded with the population, which suffer from the mixing of the use of land due to the urban accumulation to the emergence of modern buildings and constructions from features and formations that may be beautiful in their homeland but exotic in our environments and civilizations that are contrary to the customs, traditions and social values of our society. The study also showed that people desire to move according to their changed economic conditions towards the independent housing because the rural houses contain generations of the same family. The elevations are exaggerated in the midst of low-rise surrounding buildings, leading to a lapse of privacy for nearby buildings.
The study recommends the following: working on activation of the control role by the local councils and quarters in order to eliminate the slums phenomenon and restrict the informal building that distorts beauty of the city. Setting determinant designing frames for the city's buildings to restrict or prohibit the advertisement banners and to make them du to specific criteria regarding the color, the size, the font type, lightening, colors of doors of shops and unifying the umbrellas' limits and jutting-outs; this can create aesthetic touch to the city. Working on re-directing of people beliefs, values, and behaviors through encountering the problems of the social and changes, so, youth can act positively in every city through participation in fields organized by the official authorities in each governorate.