Mohsen Aboulnaga

Unplanned urban areas are considered one of the major challenges amid the fact that 70% of world’s population will be living in cities by 2050. This chapter presents a study conducted on one of the unplanned urban areas (informal areas) in Cairo, Egypt, in an attempt to provide guidelines for upgrading informal areas in developing countries based on sustainability indicators deduced from a comparative analysis of global case studies and a local case in Cairo, Egypt. The objective of this work focuses on informal areas (slums) from the economic, social, and environmental viewpoint to develop a surrounding community and increase the inward investment in the urban area. Qualitative and quantitative approaches were used in this study. The study presents an assessment of different informal areas around the world concerning sustainability and strategic environmental assessment (SEA). Two models developed by GIZ and Norman Foster were presented and compared according to a well-planned sustainable development goals checklist. In addition, a detailed assessment was also conducted to assess the local case study based on economic statistics and other sustainable development (SD) dimensions—livability, viability, and equitability. The SEA analysis includes three categories: urban, socioeconomic, and environmental. Results show that the potential of this assessment in upgrading informal areas concerning developing countries is promising. The SEA results also indicate that upgrading informal areas is a successful process when cooperation between authorities and residents exists to cover all SD pillars and the existence of ecosystems to ensure the resilience of urban areas in cities and attain sustainable development goals mainly SDG 11, SDG 12, and SDG 13.

Climate change is causing a serious impact across the world with many droughts, floods, and destruction of cities’ infrastructures. The absence of adequate international and national climate policies in addition to citizens’ behaviour and attitude in their daily lifestyle is contributing immensely to carbon emissions and consequently climate change (CC). To mitigate CC and its risks, research and government actions should focus on humans’ behaviour to enhance their performance towards building resilient cities, low-carbon communities, and better healthy environments. Citizens’ daily activities such as energy consumption, water use, and means of transportation as well as recycling procedures should be examined. The objective of this study is centred on understanding and examining the psychosocial causes of human behaviour impact towards climate change, primarily through assessing the patterns of reproduction and consumption to mitigate severe impacts and risks of CC through knowledge and citizens’ behaviour change. The methodology is based on qualitative and quantitative approaches. The first approach focuses on the psychological understanding of human behaviour to analyze human daily activities, while the quantitative approach is centred on data collection and a questionnaire targeting different citizens, living in different counties, with variable work backgrounds and ages to calculate carbon emissions from their daily activities and identify which activities generate the highest GHG emissions. Results indicate that humans generate 23.7 tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions per year, which is twice the rate when compared with the UK’s Average Footprint – estimated at 9.5 tons only. The study provides guidelines and recommendations to mitigate climate change, achieve resilient cities, and healthy and liveable communities in addition to enhance humans’ daily lifestyle, especially in the age of COVID-19.