Sara Tarek

<p>The last decades witnessed an amalgamation between cultural heritage practises and digital technology, resulting in a new heritage experience. The presented research addresses the problem of lacking in specific guidelines or frameworks for generating efficient and memorable experiences for heritage sites using digital technologies (like VR and AR). Subsequently, it investigates the preservation of heritage and its impacts on different users. The study answers two main questions: How do new immersive technologies enhance the efficiency and attractiveness of experiencing cultural heritage sites? And how does new technological integration with heritage sites communicate the cultural significance of tangible and intangible heritage? In doing so, the study focuses on theoretical and empirical aspects of users’ engagement in digital heritage applications by investigating the impact of a virtual tour of the cultural heritage site of Abu Simbel Temple in Aswan, Egypt. The results of the literature investigation and the empirical experiment resulted in the development of a conceptual model for generating an interactive digital experience for heritage sites to facilitate the analysis and evaluation of the presented digital projects.</p>

The concept of smart cities is not a new one, but it appeared by the latest innovations and developments of new smart technologies. Smart cities of the future, digitized cities and augmented cities are new theories and ideas that represent new norms based on the implementation of innovative technologies in cities’ planning and design. The COVID-19 crisis has forced all governments and people worldwide to work from home. These contingency measures forced government, organizations and citizens to get deeply involved in exploiting smart and digital technologies to pursue their daily businesses (higher education institutions, schools, hospitals, banks, companies and government entities). Due to such emergency of lockdown actions in cities resulted from the wide and rapid spread of such pandemic globally, a need for less polluted, cleaner and sustainable urban spaces is highly vital to limit the coronavirus spreading. This research focuses on the dimensions, characteristics and indicators of smart and sustainable cities that engaged with sustainability by highlighting its contribution to Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and discusses its role in creating healthier cities in the age of COVID-19. The paper aims at developing smart and sustainable cities’ solutions in urban areas to confront COVID-19 impacts. The research methodology is based on two approaches: a critical literature review of the main concepts and definitions of smart cities, the integration between smart cities’ concept and SDGs in addition to highlighting the impact of COVID-19 on the urban environment with emphasis on the lessons learned and actions needed to be adopted; and an analytical approach that proposes a matrix combining both smart and sustainability indicators to achieve greener and healthier cities, yet to control the spread of coronavirus; a raising need for urban life amidst/after the pandemic and its crisis. The matrix couples both the goals of smart cities and sustainable cities in order to map the contribution to SDGs in attaining a better and sustainable future. Results indicate that newly developed measures, in planning smart sustainable urban areas in cities, can assist in the adaptation of and achieving SDGs in the time of COVID-19.