Urban Networks Under Stress: Resilience and Structural Reconfiguration of Mobility in Egypt and Cairo (2020)

Understanding daily mobility in Egypt remains a challenge due to lim-ited data availability. Traditional urban studies rely on census data and satellite imagery, offering static snapshots rather than a dynamic rep-resentation of movement. This study utilizes Facebook’s “Data for Good” program to analyze daily mobility patterns of over four million users in Egypt from April to October 2020, coinciding with the first wave of COVID-19. The Egyptian government's response, including curfews and reductions in public transport, aimed to curb the virus’s spread, yet our findings indicate that daily commuting persisted at sig-nificant levels, particularly in Greater Cairo. We assess the extent to which mobility restrictions influenced move-ment flows, highlighting the interplay between commuting patterns and urban structure. Mobility reduction was most pronounced at night and during religious holidays, particularly Ramadan and Eid al-Fitr. However, daytime movement remained substantial, driven by eco-nomic necessity. By mapping COVID-19 incidence across Cairo’s dis-tricts, we reveal a correlation between urban centrality and infection rates, emphasizing the role of daily circulation in virus diffusion. This study underscores the potential of social media mobility data to fill gaps in urban research, offering comparative insights into how differ-ent countries experienced mobility shifts during the pandemic.