Assistant Professor, Urban Planning Department, Faculty of Urban & Regional Planning, Cairo University, Marwa
Abstract
Informal settlements are one of the most crucial challenges that face most developing countries including Egypt. These areas lack essential needs such as utilities, services, and adequate roads, and usually suffer from high densities. People living there suffer from unhealthy and insecure living conditions, in addition to poverty, social marginalization, and insecure tenure. There is hereby a necessity to address this challenge and ensure the fulfilment of human rights related to housing and quality of life. The informal area residents' resettlement scheme was here by initiated by the Egyptian Government. It is based on two methods; the first is demolishing the informal housing and resettling the inhabitants in the same location. The second method is through resettlement in a new location. This highlighted the need to investigate and evaluate the informal housing resettlement scheme in Egypt and how far it achieved its goals and objectives. The research will demonstrate the current context of informal settlements and the intervention approaches adopted, in addition to the study of the current situation of the resettlement housing in terms of its locations, types, spatial, functional, and planning considerations. The research aims at evaluating the resettlement scheme through criteria comprising urban, social, economic, and institutional aspects. The criteria are developed through a literature review and examination of international and local case studies. The evaluation covers a group of resettlement projects in Egypt that covers different types and approaches. A comparative study is accomplished to provide a comprehensive perspective of the positive and negative aspects of the scheme. Aiming at higher success rates of the resettlement scheme policy, in the future, the research outlines a set of recommendations for an efficient resettlement score of informal settlements' inhabitants.
Abdel Moneim, N. (2016). The Integrated System for Resettlement and Improving the Quality of Life for Residents of Unsafe Areas. Doctoral Dissertation, Cairo University.
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Alternative Policy Solutions, AUC Research Project. (2020, November). Urban Development and Housing in Egypt Between the Right to Housing and Social Inequality.
Abdel Moneim, N. (2020). Resettlement policies for unsafe areas - Improving the individual's quality of life or the urban aspect of the city? Alternative policy solutions.
El-Sayed, M. M., & Shawky, K. A. (2021). Indicators for evaluating the sustainability of projects to resettle unsafe areas (a case study of Rawdat Al-Sayeda Zainab area). Urban Research Journal, 43.
Nabil, S. A. (2015). Formulating a systematic model for the urban environmental design of the new villages in the desert region. Unpublished Master’s Thesis, Faculty of Regional and Urban Planning, Cairo University.
El-Sayed, M. M. (2018). Indicators for measuring the urban sustainability of residential neighborhoods by applying to new cities in Egypt using geographic information systems. Unpublished Doctoral Dissertation, Faculty of Regional and Urban Planning, Cairo University.
Omari, N. M., Geis, A. M., & Jaber, R. A. (2019). Developing patterns of human behavior as an approach to solving the problem of slums, a case study of Tal Al-Aqrab area (Rawdat Al-Sayeda Zainab). Journal of Engineering Sciences, Faculty of Engineering, Assiut University.
