The Urban Sustainability of the Egyptian Capital

Abstract

In the last decade, the urban management of the Egyptian capital adopted a comprehensive vision for its urban development sectors. Sustainability indicator results issued by a number of international institutions showed that the Egyptian capital’s ranking dropped after applying this vision. This proves that the capital has deviated from the path for which the vision was created. This research aims to build a general framework that supports achieving urban sustainability in the Egyptian capital, periodically assessing its urban policy, and assisting urban decision makers in correcting the course of their policies if necessary. This framework can be built by reviewing the legacy of urban development policies of the Egyptian capital and determine the urban issues the capital is still facing. This framework is also built by studying international practices of cities whose development plans were likewise based on setting a framework that enabled them to assess the success rate of the urban strategies adopted in achieving urban sustainability. From this, we can form the elements of a general framework for achieving urban sustainability of the Egyptian capital. This research identifies these elements as a group of issues, indicators, criteria, principles, and pillars. These elements observe the local context of the Egyptian capital. The selected issues are fitting to the Egyptian capital and its observance of its international responsibilities. These issues are determined by identifying a group of indicators and principles adopted by international institutions and authorities in assessing cities’ progress towards achieving urban sustainability. The results of this research demonstrate how cities work on building their developmental plans, with an approach based on the exchange of knowledge pertaining to the results of different practices, as well as the principles and indicators endorsed by international institutions and authorities, ensures the achievement of urban sustainability.