Towards green cities in developing countries:

Egyptian new cities as a case study

..............................................................................................................................................................
1* 1 2,3
Ibrahim Hegazy , Wael Seddik and Hossam Ibrahim
1
Department of Architecture, Mansoura University Faculty of Engineering, Mansoura,
Egypt; 2Faculty of Urban & Regional Planning, Cairo University, Cairo, Egypt;
3
Mansoura Higher Institute for Engineering & Technology, Mansoura, Egypt
.............................................................................................................................................
Abstract
In developing countries, most cities suffer from numerous problems associated with the processes of their
urban management and development. These problems have a great influence on the environmental per-
formance of those cities. Egyptian cities are no exception to such cities. Recently, Egypt has been undergo-
ing rapid urbanization and industrialization. It is claimed that there have been various undesired effects
on the environment resulting from these development processes. In fact, it could be said that development
processes, as a result of national policy over the past 3 decades, are associated with a wide range of pro-
blems and impacts on the environment. In this respect, sustainability has been the most trending issue in
developing urban communities all over the world. Great efforts have been made through sustainable
urban design to enhance the quality of life. Furthermore, it is advocated that to make these communities
sustainable, a comprehensive management of their systems is essential. This research advocates that green
mechanisms within urban management in Egypt would offer appropriate solutions for their problems.
This research casts light on one of the recent green urban management evaluation mechanisms. The
African Green City Index is adopted in this research to examine the environmental performance of three
new cities in Egypt, and the commitment made to reducing the environmental impact associated with
their urban development. The research concludes with the identification of green policy proposals for
improving the selected cities’ environmental performance and urban management. These proposals could
be considered as initiatives and guidelines for other Egyptian cities and could pave the way for identifying
appropriate policies for enhancing the quality of green city urban systems within the Egyptian context.

Keywords: urban management; urban development; green cities; African green index; Egypt
*Corresponding author:
i.hegazy@ymail.com Received 7 January 2017; revised 21 May 2017; editorial decision 29 May 2017; accepted 6 June 2017
................................................................................................................................................................................

1 INTRODUCTION
Population movement and growth is leading to a dramatic
growth of cities as global phenomena [1]. Generally, urban
growth and development are leading to immense environmen-
tal problems. There are a lot of indicators and criteria of sus-
tainability which assist in evaluating strategies to be adopted in
order to ensure the achievement of more sustainable develop-
ment [2].
Like cities in developing countries, the Egyptian cities suffer
from deterioration in all life systems of the built environments.
Moreover, there have been numerous environmental problems
caused by several factors: poor environmental planning and
lack of environmental issues being fully studied and considered
at early stages during the preparation of spatial and detailed
plans [3]. Indeed, there are no clear mechanisms for how the
environmental issues could be taken into consideration during
the urban development and management processes [4].
Furthermore, what exacerbates the problem is that gap between
theoretical sustainable systems and corresponding practical sys-
tems. In urban areas, where over 95% of Egyptians live, there is
an intensified demand on the environment due to the concen-
trations of people and their activities. It could be argued that a
level of sustainability has been reached at which the community
can live in symbiotic harmony with its environment [5]. In this
context, this research attempts to examine the environmental
performance of the new cities in Egypt, and the commitment

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 Towards green cities in developing countries

taken to minimizing the environmental impact associated with

their urban development.
The main concern of the current research is to evaluate to
what extent the Egyptian new cities are far from close to being
greener cities and the reflection of their management policies
and plans on achieving sustainability. The research gathers
many case studies that may possibly cover many trends of
urban growth that take place in the Egyptian new cities. The
new cities have been selected for the current study because
these cities have been created to be the focus of development in
the next decades to absorb the upcoming population. The
evaluation depended on information from a number of public
official sources, such as national or regional statistics, local city
authorities and utilities’ companies, local and regional branches
of the environmental authority. The data are generally for the
year 2015–16, and where not available, from the previous years.
This article consists of six sections: the first section is the Figure 1. Pillars for achieving sustainability of cities.
current introduction. The second section presents the concept
of sustainable cities in addition to the pillars for achieving sus- 3.1 Energy and CO2
tainability. Thirdly, challenges facing achieving green cities are Urbanization mostly increases in relation to the transforma-
discussed. The adopted methodology for this study is identified tions in the phases of economic and industrial development.
in the fourth section. The fifth one provides a description of the Urbanization and energy have recently become the two primary
selected Egyptian cities. The sixth section represents the evalu- issues in developing countries [7]. It is argued that urban areas
ation of the Egyptian new cities against the African City Index. are the main responsible for more than 70% of global energy-
Finally, the research concludes with recommendations and related CO2 emissions, and obviously, this percentage will
appropriate policies for sustainable development and manage- increase as the urbanization trend continues [8]. The spreading
ment in order to achieve more green cities in Egypt. of urban areas intensely does not only affect energy use in the cit-
ies with high-urbanization density only, but also the cities with
low-urbanization density. Meanwhile, urbanization intensely
2 SUSTAINABLE CITIES affects the carbon emissions [9].

Cities and towns have considered the main human living space.
It is argued that more than half of the world’s population since
2007 has been living in urban areas and this is expected to
increase 70% by 2050, compared with rural areas [6]. The inte-
gration of social, economic, environmental and urban governance
as three pillars of sustainability—social development, economic
development and environmental management could promote the
sustainability of cities. Figure 1 shows the three main pillars for
achieving sustainability in cities and the ways in which cities
should build sustainability and reflect their capacity to adapt to
the development priorities defined by each pillar.
Building sustainable cities in developing countries like Egypt
is influenced by social, economic and environmental challenges.
Figure 2 identifies the most serious challenges and the oppor-
tunities related to the main urban trends facing developing
countries [6].
3 GREEN CITY CHALLENGES
This section identifies and discusses the most serious challenges
facing cities and urban communities to achieving sustainability
and becoming green (Figure 3).
3.2 Land use
Land use as a result of urban growth, economic development
and other human activities is among the main pressures on the
environment worldwide, specifically in high-urbanization areas.
The changes of natural land (open or agricultural) to urban
land is one of the core environmental issues in developing
countries [10]. In a number of related studies, it is argued that
land consumption has typically negative impacts to the envir-
onment in different aspects [11, 12]. These impacts decrease
the ability of nature to fulfill human necessities and conse-
quently influence ecosystems in various ways [13].
3.3 Transport
The environmental impact of transport is important because it
is the main consumer of energy. Transport has been considered
a major contributor to global warming through emissions of
CO2 [14]; as argued in many studies that the transport means
are the major source of greenhouse gas emissions in developing
countries [15]. An estimated 30% of national greenhouse gas
emissions are directly attributable to transportation, and in
some regions, this percentage is greater [14]. Other environ-
mental challenges related to transport systems that may

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 I. Hegazy et al.

Figure 2. Challenges to and opportunities for achieving sustainable cities.

consume natural lands and habitats could be identified as traffic required to support the functioning of the system, and the load
overcrowding and transportation-oriented urban sprawl. on the local budget as a result of the high expenses and costs
associated with its management [17].

3.4 Waste management

In developing countries, the growth of industrialization, urban-
ization, population and growing economies contribute to the
increasing generation of solid waste [16]. In developing coun-
tries, solid waste management is considered a challenge for the
cities’ authorities because of the growing generation of waste,
the deficiency of understanding a variety of factors which influ-
ence the various phases of waste management and connections
3.5 Water quality
Water as a natural resource provides a variety of uses from
drinking water in cities to the irrigation of crops in rural areas
[18]. Furthermore, it offers recreational uses as well as habitat
for wildlife. Clean water is essential for life and various recre-
ational, industrial and agricultural uses. Hence, billions of dol-
lars rely on the health of watersheds [19]. Many water experts

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Figure 3. Green city challenges.
acknowledge the significance of clean water and healthy water-
sheds. Evidently, this is because poor water quality not only
affects the health of people but also threatens the ecosystems. It
may be argued that watersheds are easily impacted by human
influences whether that is through urbanization, agricultural
pollution or a combination of many ‘complicated’ factors that
disrupt the water quality [18].
3.6 Sanitation
Urbanization has a bearing on the quality of our environmental
sanitation. Being more specific the high rates of population
growth and increasing demand on resources accompanied by
poor spatial planning and inadequate infrastructure changes the
quality of the environment in cities. This has a negative effect on
basic environmental conditions that may affect the well-being of
people [20]. It is highlighted that waste disposal is one of the
urgent environmental issues requiring attention and resolutions.
A critical part of successful urban growth management is linking
the demand for land with utility planning and equitable funding,
in a timely manner [21]. To date, many cities are facing signifi-
cant challenges due to rapid population growth and urban devel-
opment, which have strained the capacities of utilities’ providers
and social services [22].
3.7 Air quality
The rapid increase in urbanization, particularly in and around
urban areas has resulted in increasing demand for energy,
transportation and water, which is causing a significant increase
in CO2 gas emissions and a decline in air quality. Thus rapid
urbanization development processes currently are considered one
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Towards green cities in developing countries
of the most significant environmental problems [23]. Actually, it
has been obvious in developing countries that exposure to out-
door air pollution in itself constitutes a health hazard [24]. Being
more specific exposure to ambient outdoor particulate matter air
pollution has been assessed to represent one of the greatest possi-
bility factors in all deaths in developing nations [25]. Rapid eco-
nomic development and urbanization coupled with fragmented
planning mechanisms in the last ten years have negatively
impacted on urban climate and air quality and resulted in imbal-
ances in the regional climate. These imbalances include irregular
rainfall distribution, and the monsoon causing increases in the
frequency of droughts and floods [26].
3.8 Environmental governance
There is no doubt that protecting the environment, for example,
through mainstreaming environment into development plans
and implementing environmental policy and other environmen-
tal legislations is important for urban development and eco-
nomic growth [27]. In this context, sustainable development
depends, in part, on the policy, institutional and legal frame-
works related to the environment as well as on the implementa-
tion capacity [28]. Regarding the developing countries, the
major obstacles are associated with sufficient implementation of
the existing environmental frameworks. Weak governance is
related to undesirable environmental outcomes. On the other
hand, good governance has the potential to regulate and enforce
environmentally sound policies and sustainable use of the envir-
onment. Improved governance, combined with legal frameworks
and processes, may be powerful instruments contributing to sus-
tainable development [28].
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 I. Hegazy et al.
4 EVALUATION CRITERIA
In this context, the African Green City Index [29] is adopted in
this research to measure the environmental performance of new
cities in Egypt. The evaluation scores are based on 25 individual
indicators (Figure 4) that can be classified into eight main cat-
egories. These categories reflect the policies and the procedures
facing the main challenges discussed above in addition to the
environmental governance which indicates to what extent envir-
onmental management and monitoring are in place as follows:
• Energy and CO2
• Land use
• Transport
• Waste management
• Water quality
• Sanitation
• Air quality
• Environmental governance
These 25 indicators are based on quantitative and qualitative
assessments. Twelve of them aim to measure how the city is cur-
rently performing using quantitative analysis, for example, the pro-
portion of the population living in informal settlements, the level
of CO2 emissions from electricity use, and sharing wastewater trea-
ted in the city. The other 13 indicators are qualitative in nature.
They evaluate each city’s strategies, policies and regulations, for
instance, development of green spaces and conservation areas, the
city obligation to reduce the environmental influence of energy
consumption, the initiatives of reducing congestion, and waste
management.
The quantitative indicators are based on an ordinal scale start-
ing from the worst scoring 0–10 the best case score. These indica-
tors are scored based on impartial scoring criteria that take into
account cities’ targets, policies and plans. Moreover, reasonable
benchmarks have been identified to avoid outliers from skewing
the distribution of scores. Then the qualitative indicators are
scored on a scale of 0, given to cities that have not met the criteria
on the checklist, to 10 for the cities achieving the criteria on the
checklist [30].
With regard to the category scores, each indicator was accu-
mulated according to an assigned weighting. The indicators
received the same weighting within the respective categories.
The category scores were then rebased onto a scale of 0–100.
To build the overall index scores, even weightings were assigned
to each category score; that is, no category was given greater
importance than any other. The Index is basically the summa-
tion of all category scores, rebased to 100.
5 EGYPTIAN NEW CITIES
The Egyptian new town policy was begun in the 1970s by the
Government of Egypt as a recognition that the old inhabited
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areas along the Nile valley are no longer capable of absorbing the
increasing population. Thus, the main purpose of the new cities
was obviously to attract population, provide an industrial base
outside the Valley, and attract private and public investments.
From 1976 till 1980, six new towns were launched. These are
now considered the ‘first generation’ of new towns. The cities are
Sixth of October, 15th of May, 10th of Ramadan, New Damietta,
Borg El-Arab and El-Sadat. The Sixth of October, 15th of May,
10th of Ramadan are around Greater Cairo (Figure 5) while the
others are outside the Greater Cairo. These were planned to be
geographically and economically independent of major cities,
each with their own industrial base [31]. Moreover, by the mid-
1980s the second generation was started around the Greater
Cairo. Parallelly, the ‘third generation’ of new cities was launched
as sister towns or twins to the existing cities. Presently, there are
20 new cities which are functioning or under construction.
In this section, the research is focused on an analysis between
three of the new generation cities (Sixth of October, 10th of
Ramadan and New Damietta), which are considered relatively
the more successful first generation new cities in Egypt. This is
to identify which towns are relatively more successful than others
in achieving sustainability and being closer to be becoming green
cities. The relative success of these cities relates to a number of
factors. They are (a) the strategic location of Sixth of October
and 10th of Ramadan within the capital region, and the location
of New Damietta on the Mediterranean coast in the North, (b)
the favored target for large subsidized public housing programs,
(c) the large industrial area with both public sector industries
and private factories enjoying considerable incentives and (d) the
attractiveness for public and private investments [31].
The Sixth of October, announced in 1979, was planned for
an ultimate population of 500 000. Its original economic base
was an industrial city with a large industrial zone to the west, a
mix of public housing and individual housing subdivisions to
the east, and a central commercial spine to interconnect the
city. It is located ~35 km west of central Cairo. In the early
1990s, Sixth of October started to undergo major changes
(Figure 6). Boundaries of the city were expanded into the sur-
rounding desert, and large plots of land were allocated to the
private sector as well as more plot allocations to individuals.
Attempts were made to attract leading investments, such as
amusement parks, private universities, and media production
city. The city’s current area is ~490 km2 and its population is 1
500 000 and expected to reach 6 000 000 in 2030.
The 10th of Ramadan, announced in 1977, is one of the cit-
ies constructed close to the Greater Cairo to expand the popu-
lated area and to mitigate the social and economic stresses
influencing Cairo due to overpopulation and urban growth.
The city is in the East of Nile delta region along the Cairo-
Ismailia desert road. It is bounded by the Cairo-Belbies desert
road from the west, El Shabab canal from the east, Ismailia
canal from the north and Cairo-Ismailia desert road from the
south (Figure 7). The city’s current area is ~465 km2 and its
population is 650 000 and expected to reach 2 500 000 in 2030.
 Towards green cities in developing countries

Figure 4. List of categories, indicators and their weightings in the African Green City Index.

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 I. Hegazy et al.

Figure 5. Locations of new cities around Greater Cairo.

Figure 7. Satellite view of 10th of Ramadan.

Figure 6. Satellite view of Sixth of October.

New Damietta, announced in 1980, is the third case. The

city is considered to be the desert hinterland for the delta and
Cairo region. The city is managed by the government under the
New Urban Communities Authority which is responsible for all
new city urban growth. The city population in 2010 was 200
thousand after more than 30 years of development. In spite of
Figure 8. Satellite view of New Damietta city.
the city having huge amounts of investment and urban develop-
ment, it still did not achieve notable progress in its population.
The location of New Damietta city has been chosen to be cen- into green cities using green mechanisms, if not. The cities are
terd between three main regions, Cairo, Alexandria and the evaluated against the African Green City Index (Figure 9).
East Delta (Figure 8). This unique location as being in the hin- None of the cities achieved the highest possible band and
terland desert area of the province of Damietta which has the placed as ‘well above average’, even the best city has room to
potential to be reclaimed land gives it the potential to be an enhance its environmental performance. Sixth of October performs
urban growth pole city that can attract citizens from many better than 10th of Ramadan and New Damietta (Figure 10).
regions. Its current area is ~270 km2 and its population is
200 000 and expected to reach 500 000 in 2030.
6.1 Energy and CO2
The results highlight that the varying levels of economic
6 EGYPTIAN NEW CITIES EVALUATION growth, particularly between Sixth of October and the other cit-
ies. The position of Sixth of October is held back for the reason
The selected cities are evaluated to measure how far they are that CO2 emissions are significantly greater than in the other
from the green average score and how they can be developed cities and it has the greatest per person electricity consumption.

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 Towards green cities in developing countries

Figure 9. New cities evaluation according to the African Green City Index.

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 I. Hegazy et al.
Figure 10. New cities evaluation matrix.
Nevertheless, it achieves much better in the energy policy indi-
cator. It is noted that because of data limitations, energy in the
form of electricity could only be taken into consideration. The
average amount of CO2 emissions from electricity consumption
for Sixth of October is more than three times the figure for
10th of Ramadan and more than five times the figure for New
Damietta. This reflects the differences in sourcing electricity.
On policy, however, Sixth of October is the best performers.
6.2 Land use
Nevertheless, the results show that cities achieved some success
in green space indicator, they are generally have had low suc-
cess for low-density sprawl. On average the three cities have
~30 m2 of green space per person. In the case of Sixth of
October and 10th of Ramadan, there is more a result of good
land use policy. Urban sprawl is an issue in the three cities.
And Sixth of October has a population density of ~3061 people
per km2. The three cities have the lowest figure for the percent-
age of the population living in informal settlements, at an esti-
mated 4% for New Damietta. On policy, however, Sixth of
October has the best performance.
6.3 Transport
The evaluation shows that assessed cities do not have extensive
advanced public transportation systems. The evaluation high-
lights that cities could enhance at policy level though, for instance
by adopting more initiatives to minimize traffic congestion. It
might be noted that inhabitants generally depend on private
transport, private minibuses and taxis, and these forms of trans-
portation could not be involved due to lack of data. Another
issue is the absence of consistency in mass transport plans.
Congestion reduction initiatives, for instance, carpooling lanes,
no-car days or toll roads, are missing. The upper intersections
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systems have been only implemented by Sixth of October and
traffic light system is adopted in the three cases.
6.4 Waste management
The results highlight varying in waste generation indicator. Cities
could take advantage of more successful policies. Waste gener-
ation figures vary from 370 kg per person each year in 10th of
Ramadan to more than 330 kg in Sixth of October. This figure is
more than twice the New Damietta average of 180 kg. However,
evaluation was done with caution as it is uncertain to how far
figures may include waste generated in industrial regions.
Recycling is considered more common. And Sixth of October has
on-site collection or central collection sites. Waste policies, for
instance, the overall waste management strategy, are less wide-
spread. Only New Damietta gets high marks for adopting a strat-
egy targeted at decreasing, recycling and reusing waste in place.
And Sixth of October is the only city successes to get well above
average as it adopts regulations for waste pickers.
6.5 Water quality
The results highlight that all cities consume over the index
average with 190 l per person per day in New Damietta and
190 l per person per day in New Damietta in 10th of October,
less than in Sixth of October at 290 l per person per. The level
of connectivity to potable water is more than 95%, with the def-
inition of access essentially means a 24-h supply or water piped
directly to housing units. Leakage average is high, at 30% in
New Damietta, although the average for the Sixth of October
and 10th of Ramadan was 18 and 20%, respectively. In the pol-
icy area, the codes covering water quality and management
could be enriched. Strong water policies are not in place. Only
Sixth of October gets high marks for monitoring water quality
and enforcement water pollution standards for local industries.
In addition, water efficiency initiatives, such as grey water

recycling or public promotion of conservation, are not in place.
The exception is metering or tariffs, which are in place.
6.6 Sanitation
Despite sanitation access rates is relatively high, from an esti-
mated 91.9% in New Damietta to an estimated 97.9% in Sixth
of October, cities lack to have a code covering sanitation stan-
dards and infrastructure. Only Sixth of October has the high
score for its efforts in these areas. Generally, cities face barriers
and obstacles in implementing sanitation policies and plans.
Adversely, as with access to potable water, access to sanitation
do not always include household connections to the sewerage
system. At a policy level, cities are held back and tend to lag
behind. With respect to enforcement, cities have no regular
monitoring of on-site treatment services in households or com-
munal areas and there is a lack of enforcement of existing pol-
icies or very limited monitoring.
6.7 Air quality
There is no emissions data. So the air quality category is assessed
only on the basis of policies. With respect to this, Only Sixth of
October has the high score for its efforts in these areas. It tends
to be more active, although, in 10th of Ramadan and New
Damietta, air quality seems to get relatively low attention from
local governments. There is a lack of comprehensive and compar-
able data on this category to be incorporated. It is claimed that
when policies are in place, Egyptian cities face great obstacles in
minimizing pollution, that often reaches unhealthy levels.
6.8 Environmental governance
Environmental policy in Egypt is mainly adopted to be set at the
national or regional level, rather than at city level. This means
that generally environmental matters get relatively low attention
than if they were observed at the local level. It is identified that
the three Egyptian cities are relatively independent to manage the
environment at the urban level. Generally, though environmental
policies exist, executive regulations of these policies are limited.
Publication of environmental performance data regularly, as well
as completing wide-ranging baseline environmental reviews in
the evaluated cities are partial or non-existent. Only in Sixth of
October the involvement of citizens, non-governmental organiza-
tions and other stakeholders in making environmental decisions
is limited. Citizens concerned with engaging with the authorities
face obstacles in getting information. Sixth of October and New
Damietta get high marks for ease of access to information.
7 CONCLUSION
Great efforts have been made through sustainable urban design
to improve the quality of life without a raise in expenses. Also,
it is important to make these communities sustain through a
comprehensive management of its systems. The research pre-
sents an analysis of sustainable urban management system of
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Towards green cities in developing countries
Egyptian cities to develop green mechanisms for urban settle-
ments. The research casts light on the recent green develop-
ment mechanisms policies on the urban communities. Through
the case study that has been analyzed many of Egyptian govern-
ance policies are shown. It clearly confirms that many policies
and plans in Egypt are not integrated or connected. This study
concludes how green is our new cities and what they need to be
above the average of African green cities. The results are used
to form criteria and framework that many of our new commu-
nities should apply for better green communities. Also, these
results confirm that already our new cities have made the half-
way to the full green one.
This identifies many questions regarding the future chal-
lenges facing achieving sustainability in Egypt, from providing
basic services and upgrading and integrating settlements, to
working to give the ‘green’ agenda the same priority as other
pressing necessities. The research acknowledges that addressing
the green agenda will be the crucial task in the years to come.
The following points are the most appreciate proposals for
achieving more pattern of sustainable development and man-
agement in the Egyptian cities.
• Good governance at the local level: national environmental
strategies can have long-term impacts, and can provide a
holistic strategic direction.
• A comprehensive approach: cities should adopt a comprehen-
sive approach to environmental issues, identifying that per-
formance in one category, for instance, waste management, is
associated with success in other categories for example air
quality.
• Public participation: involving public in environmental deci-
sions is essential, and there are a number of good examples
all over the world.
• Green technology: technology has a significant role in min-
imizing environmental effects. For instance, the sustainable
urban infrastructure could cut almost 40% of the total CO2
emissions, without changes in lifestyle or consumption.
• Green and brown agendas: developing cities demands the
so-called ‘brown agenda’, which focuses on human health
and poverty reduction, as distinguished from the ‘green
agenda’, which looks to improve the sustainability of
ecosystems.
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