Mohsen Aboulnaga

Cities face many challenges to meet sustainability. This chapter presents a conceptual vision for creating a livable centre for the communities in the city of Conegliano with a special focus on sustainability, not only from an urban farm viewpoint but also as a new social aspect to achieve social sustainability. The design strategy integrates new smart architectural and urban agricultural solutions. Various technologies are incorporated in the building including aquaponic tray farming system, vertical axis wind turbine modules and cable trellis ivy facades as well as multi-spectrum LED-censored lights and double-glazed glass to reduce energy consumption. Such technologies create a self-sustained building with minimal waste and CO2 emissions and livable environments. The social innovation also includes various social spaces (local gym, Treviso cafeteria, educational farm and a research lab), all of which were redesigned to maintain the current existing structure, minimize embodied energy and maximize the social interaction with the users yet encourage communal interaction between the citizens and enhance connectivity. For economic sustainability, a business model including strategy, marketing, operations and SWOT analysis was carried out to predict the project’s operation cost and labour management. Results show that retrofitting this factory will turn such vacant site into a vibrant and multifunctional spot. Also, results indicate that enhancing the site would make the city a livable and an economic hub that serves people, raises awareness and is self-sustained for years to come by addressing sustainable development and SGDs, mainly SDG 7, 8, 11, 12 and 13.

Local governments worldwide face challenges to meet the Paris Climate Agreement 2015 and its targets amid the high CO2 emissions. Municipalities should play a major role in addressing climate actions and transform cities to more sustainable energy resources to attain SDGs. The European Union initiated a major project ‘Cleaner Energy Saving Mediterranean Cities’ (CES-MED) from 2011 to 2018, which is under the European Neighbourhood and Partnership Instrument (ENPI) to support South Mediterranean countries in developing Sustainable Energy and Climate Action Plans—SECAP. This chapter presents strategic action plans to support and strengthen the capacity of local authorities to embrace and implement sustainable development and clean energy policies in line with existing national regulatory and legislative frameworks yet to understand the energy consumption in all sectors that utilize energy in the city, map energy consumption and CO2 emissions over 1 year, develop priority planned actions and establish climate actions. This chapter also highlights the assessment that was conducted on eight sectors such as transport, residential, tertiary and government buildings, agriculture, industry, waste, wastewater and tourism in two cities (Hurghada and Luxor) in Egypt. The assessment is based on the calculation of energy use and GHG emission according to the methodology of the European Commission Joint Research Centre (EC-JRC). The planned action and climate actions comprise of seven priority actions for the city of Hurghada and five priority actions for the city of Luxor including as follows: (1) transport, urban sustainable mobility master plan; (2) tourism, sustainable green boats; (3) tourism, green and sustainable hotels and resorts; (4) sustainable approach for governorate buildings; (5) sustainable approach for residential building; (6) solar energy development; and (7) green city awareness unit. However, in this paper, the first three priority actions are presented. Results in the city of Luxor (2015) indicate that total energy consumption and the corresponding global GHG emissions are estimated to be 4937 GWh/year and 1797 ktCO2eq/year, whereas these are 3338 GWh/year and 1338 ktCO2eq/year in Hurghada.

Urban areas in hot-arid climatic zones, especially in Egypt, are facing real challenges in responding to heat island effect, providing thermal comfort and adapt to climate change (CC) impacts. Such challenges are mounting due to CC risks that are manifested worldwide, e.g., severe storms that recently slashed the Gulf of Mexico, Texas, and Florida, USA. Metrological data indicate that the increase in hot summer days would result in rapid multiplication in heat stress, death cases, and economic impacts. A severe event was observed in Cairo, Egypt, in August 2015, where air temperature was recorded high 49 °C above the normal temperature for 10 days, hence resulting in 200 cases that were hospitalized from heat stress and 98 deaths. The CC direct risks are not only limited to urban areas and public health. Due to the fact that Egypt is highly dependent on fossil fuels to produce electricity, GHG emissions, mainly CO2 will be significantly increasing. Therefore, sustainable and green measures and actions are vital to be considered and implemented in all sectors. Under such adverse CC impacts, it is necessary for all stakeholders to examine current urban projects in order to assess their ability to respond to CC adaptation measures. This paper presents the assessment of a low-income housing settlement that was recently built in Cairo. The Asmarat project is selected as the case study to simulate the long-term impact of CC scenarios by 2080 on one of the capital’s urban settlements and to test the role of passive cooling configurations in mitigating CC effect in cities to identify possible countermeasures. Simulation programs ENVI-met and DesignBuilder were used to assess and measure the resilience and sustainability of the selected urban project. The study simulates the urban microclimate in terms of the urban form by 2016 and 2080 to evaluate CC impact. Six measures were tested including passive cooling design configurations, building elevation, buildings’ envelops, vegetation, and water features, and orientation and high albedo were tested, and results were presented. These findings address adaptation policies, actions and measures, and simulations of the role of buildings’ retrofitting and cities’ upgrading in coping with CC mitigation/adaptation to narrow the information gap and yet understand the challenges facing the adaptation measures in hot-arid zones. The changes in climatic parameters resulted in an increased magnitude of thermal discomfort by 1 point on the PMV thermal sensation scale in the built environment within hot-arid climate zones. In addition, results indicate that adaptation measures through buildings’ retrofitting and upgrading cities’ strategies played a vital role in adapting with CC risks through the enhancement of outdoor and indoor thermal comfort and mitigating CO2 emissions.

Climate change is currently affecting most of the cities across the globe in the past years with its climate severe events manifested in the year 2019. This objective of this paper is to focus on the strategic renewable energy and climate action plans of two seaside cities in Egypt to strengthen clean energy capacity and implementation based on each city’s strategy in 2030. Diagnostic studies were carried out to identify the gap in each city in terms of climate change and renewable energy. Prior to providing a detailed account of the concrete measures undertaken to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and promote the development of sustainable energy, the national and regional strategies on climate change adaptation and renewable energy capacity and future needs were assessed to draw the gap at the local government level. Climate change risks by sectors in terms of vulnerability have been assessed and presented. The adaptation scoreboard of the Adaptation Cycle-Specific Steps (ACSS) for each city, based on the European Commission Joint Research Centre (EC-JRC) guidelines, including six steps has also been utilised to assess the climate actions in the city. In addition, risk assessment and vulnerability analysis were conducted using a set of parameters and interviews with local government officials. In order to conduct the risk assessment and vulnerability analysis on the city, as a first step, the climate hazard types were identified. Both Hurghada and Luxor were selected to assess the impact of each climate hazard type, where a series of vulnerable and impacted sectors, such as population (public health), infrastructure (transport, energy, water, and social), and the built environment (building stock and materials), as well as economy (tourist and agriculture) and biodiversity (coastal zone ecosystems and green zones) were diagnosed and assessed. The vulnerability analysis, which is based on the Future Cities Adaptation Compass Tool, Governors’ (Mayors) Adapt, and the European Climate Adaptation Platform, is carried out and presented. The results of the adopted climate adaptation actions in the city of Hurghada and the city of Luxor, including impacted sectors, are presented and discussed. Finally, the renewable energy action of upgrading the solar photovoltaic (PV) capacity in both the cities from 13 MW to 35 MW is also assessed and highlighted.