Sustainable urban transformation in small cities in Egypt: a UN-habitat perspective

Urban transformation in Egypt is happening in a rapid, unorganized and informal manner. This is causing major environmental degradation problems. There are several significant environmental problems that face many newly transformed urban communities, such as municipal solid waste management, pollution of fresh water bodies, air pollution, noise and degradation of visual landscapes. This paper studies the case of urban transformation in Egypt with a focus on identifying and assessing the existing environmental conditions in Egyptian small cities, which have a population of less than 100,000 inhabitants. The paper analyses possible causes of the identified problems and the challenges that are associated with the urban transformation phenomenon in Egypt. The paper also looks at the linkages between urban planning and environmental management.