The Challenge of River Rehabilitation in Coastal Cities: The Case of Sayniq River

Abstract

Sayniq River is a seasonal watercourse, 23 km in length, that marks the southern limit of Saida and the northern limit of Ghaziye. Sayniq extends from Safi and Al Rihane mountains at 662 m above sea level emerging at the Ein El Helweh Palestinian Refugee camp into the coastal plain of Saida-Dekerman terminating in its Mediterranean estuary. The riparian ecology has been undermined by sewage discharge, the river landscape compromised through encroachment onto the public domain, and the poor management of river resources. As a result, the river has been transformed from a living landscape and hydrological lifeline into a lifeless borderline.

As an urban designer, a Palestinian living in Ein El Helweh, I chose to research the Sayniq to understand its transformation, and to explore alternative urban landscape approaches to rehabilitate the river ecosystem, reclaim the river landscape, and capitalize its potential to improve the quality of life for Palestinian refugees in the camp and for the inhabitants of Saida.

The research applied the Ecological Landscape Design and Planning Approach (Makhzoumi and Pungetti, 1999) at multiple scales; the watershed scale; the urban scale of Saida-Dekerman; and the site scale. The approach forms the basis for proposing the urban landscape design intervention. Planning guidelines are proposed at the watershed scale by drawing on the Ecological Landscape Associations analysis of the Sayniq watershed. At the urban scale, the proposed strategies draw on Landscape Character Zones of the Sayniq river in Saida and the urban landscape design interventions at six strategic sites.

The Sayniq case study has the potential to serve as a pilot project that can be applied to other coastal rivers and seasonal streams in Lebanon, especially those in or close to Lebanese coastal cities.