Challenges and opportunities of applying digital public participation tools in urban development projects in Egypt. (Dept. A)

Abstract

Despite the rapid social and informal-urban growth which causes a lot of problems in urban and rural settlements in Egypt, the lack of both stakeholders’ coordination and genuine public participation cause additional issues. Nowadays, many cities in Egypt, including the capital, suffer from the lack of real public participation in the decision-making of urban projects which results in conflicts among the government, the public and even experts opposing these decisions. All over the world, many participation models have been adopted in urban planning and development projects with different levels and forms of public participation. Where public participation is a requisite, not a choice, the debate is how to develop the participation models using the potentials of ICT's and smartphones to ensure inclusiveness in participation processes. At the Covid-19 pandemic, most of the activities have been shifted to online platforms. This shift has made an urgent demand for complete digital methods of public participation which -in addition- supports the Egyptian government vision for digitalizing services. In this regard, the research opens the door for applying digital public participation in urban development projects that reflects the public’s needs and preferences, taking the advantages of the new technologies and considering the precautionary measures and social distancing in the age of covid-19. The paper explores the state-of-the-art of current online public engagement tools used in Egypt, the potentials and challenges of applying digital public participation and recommends guidelines for implementation based on successful case studies and what fits in the local context