THE CITY OF RADES. POTENTIAL, VULNERABILITY AND RESILIENCE ISSUES

Abstract

The town of Rades is located in the southern suburbs of Tunis, it is located on a hill and extends largely over a plain. Thanks to its coastline and its urban forest, everything suggests that it is a resort town with many natural and landscape assets. However, Rades is currently a polluted city, banned from its beaches, threatened by the violation of its forest, the contamination of its atmosphere and the proliferation of informal housing.

The establishment of the country's first commercial port in the city of Rades constitutes a considerable economic asset, however, it reinforces the vulnerability of the city following atmospheric, noise and maritime pollution caused by container transport ships. The Oued Meliane, the country's second largest river which crossed the city and which, for years, constituted a strong threat through its overflows and floods, was the subject of major dredging and redevelopment works following the establishment of the Olympic sports city of Rades in 2001. This is how an agricultural area of ​​280 ha was declassified, giving rise to a large residential area developed by the Housing Land Agency, which offers the city a new urban extension planned.The Rades urban forest, which spread over an area of ​​300 ha, is considered a natural and urban refuge for the population of the southern zone of Tunis. However, the latter risked suffering an act of violation in 2017 during the planning of a motorway ramp right in the middle. The project planned by the Ministry of Equipment and Housing will lead to the destruction of an ecosystem, the deforestation of 6,000 trees and the attack on the footprint of the Farhat Hached Urban Park. It led to a reaction of radical protest from the population and civil society of the southern suburbs with a view to saving the city and preserving its green lung. The article analyzes this dichotomy of the city's assets and constraints and explains how these elements contribute to either its vulnerability or its resilience.