Towards green(er) Egyptian cities

‘Towns and cities in Egypt are growing at an alarming rate, with increasing population and urbanization rates that have a significant impact on the natural environment. Egypt is aware of these challenges and developed several policies and strategies towards a greener future. In line with the Paris agreement (2016) and the Sustainable Development Goals (2030), Egypt’s SDS 2030 guides the transition towards sustainable development through green economy principles. In this regard, attention towards cities’ performance is urgently needed in Egypt. Green urbanism and “Green City” has been discussed since the 1990s as an interdisciplinary integrated approach to designing or renewing cities, with consideration for social, economic, and environmental prosperity. Cross-sector partnerships are found to be critical in achieving sustainability and implementing green urbanism principles. Although there are some attempts of green urban businesses in Egypt, higher education needs to pay more attention to the topics of sustainable urban development and green cities, in addition to strengthening the linkages and networks with green urban-related businesses’ (TU Berlin Habitat Unit www 2023).

Last week, Katrin Bohn was invited to contribute her experience and thoughts to the Berlin workshop of the German-Egyptian research project Towards green(er) Egyptian cities through people-centered, practice-oriented urban education. The 3-year project is lead by Dr. Hassan Elmouelhi and Hellen Aziz from the Habitat Unit at Technical University Berlin and funded by the German academic exchange service DAAD. Its main goal is to support the knowledge transfer between higher education institutions and green urban businesses in the field of “Green Cities”.

In her talk, Katrin spoke to the Egyptian guests about food-productive green infrastructure and urban metabolism highlighting the need and opportunity to think systemically and multi-functional about designing space in existing cities as well as new settlements. She used Bohn&Viljoen’s design research concept Continuous Productive Urban Landscape (CPUL) to illustrate changes in public awareness to urban food system issues, as well as to illustrate her talk with practical examples.

For more information about Green(er) Egyptian Cities see the project’s own website.

For information on the Habitat Unit at TU Berlin see here.

For an overview of all our presentations see this presentations list.

Image: The project focuses on different urban contexts: peripheral areas, complex urban context in “Greater Cairo” and new city. (source: TU Berlin Habitat Unit www 2023)