Contribution short abstract:

This paper will explore the relationship between the Bedouin community and natural flood cycles in central Sinai. It will focus on an urban megaproject currently under construction in the mountainous region of Saint Catherine, which aims to prevent/control the flooding of rainwater. Through this entry point, the paper seeks to examine differing perceptions of floods: what forms of dwelling co-exist with the existing flood cycles? Who views floods as a blessing in the desert? And who regards floods as a hazard?

Contribution long abstract:

One of the components of the Grand-Transfiguration-Project, under construction in St.Catherine, is to build a flood control system because the city is located at the intersection of many valleys and has been classified as a flood-prone zone. Now that millions worth of real estate is being built, the mountainous landscape of St.Catherine needs to be “domesticated through controlling the flow of rainwater. This paper will draw on literature that broadens the temporal lens to challenge anthropocentric views of certain natural phenomena often seen as catastrophic. Many scholars have highlighted the benefits of natural regimes of wildfires and floods for biodiversity in certain landscapes, arguing that urbanization in known flood-plains and fire-belts is a form of trespass against nature. In St.Catherine rain flooding is part of a natural cycle that sustains both human and non-human life in these arid terrains. Rainwater rests in valleys and reservoirs that Bedouins and a multitude of non-human species cyclically dwell around. Tampering with the flow of floods to protect the real estate being built may benefit sedentary communities, but it will have unaccounted for consequences on the landscape and its inhabitants. While the literature of the ontological turn prioritizes a more inclusive outlook into surrounding ecological/social worlds, phenomena like wildfires and flooding are still widely analyzed from an anthropocentric lens that spectacularizes their violence on human habitations and not the other way around. This paper will look at floods from a multi-species lens to examine how they are experienced and perceived by different groups.