Smart Cities or Smart People: The Role of Smart People to Achieve Integrative Vision

Abstract

The smart city concept has emerged in Egypt in the last 5 years with the start of the fourth generation of new cities, creating a gap between the policies dealing with new versus existing cities. In fact, the proposed strategic master plans for existing cities lacked the components of smartness and the true engagement of stakeholders. It rather focused on meeting the challenges resulting from the over densification, and informalities by a participatory approach that is still missing an appropriate common language between all stakeholders. The authors argue that smart cities’ vision will contribute to solving the issues of cities if linked to the regional context, especially involving new cities while achieving local resilience. The case of New Alamein and old Alamein is a clear interpretation that will be discussed and analyzed to determine the way forward to achieve the integrative vision. This chapter addresses the importance of an integrated approach that would ensure the successful implementation of the smart cities’ initiative in both new and existing cities through empowering the utilization of physical, human, and economic resources of the country. Particularly, the chapter provides insights into how to engage the various stakeholders to contribute to the Egyptian agenda 2030 to place the existing Egyptian agglomerations on the map of sustainable smart cities. The authors will provide recommendations on how to achieve a dynamic inclusion of all stakeholders, emphasizing their role to build sustainable, resilient, and smart cities. This would imply to determine the difference of scale, and level of smartness required to achieve a smart integration.