From Urban to Suburban Growth, a Gradual Discourse from Quality to Inequality? The Case of New Aswan

Abstract

This paper investigates urban policy in Aswan Governorate within the scope of regional planning and urban economics and focuses on the newly emerging town New Aswan in relation to the old mother city Aswan. The paper aims at deconstructing the current urban policy of urban and suburban growth towards a more comprehensive policy for alleviating urban inequality and reaching a balanced model of urban quality of life. The methods applied in this paper depends on analyzing the strategic plan of Aswan city, investigating the current models of demographic growth and transit mobility, and conducting local interviews in Aswan and New Aswan. The first two parts of this paper undertake a broad understanding of the urban policy of new towns development in Egypt and provide evidence through different literature on the ever-increasing deviations from their preset planning objectives and their present performance and outcomes. In addition, negative reflexes of new towns on their proximate mother cities are further discussed and investigated to critically highlight planning policy deficits in terms of social inequality and reduced urban resilience. The third part investigates the case study New Aswan and introduces different information on the dual growth model of Aswan-New Aswan. The final part of the paper draws attention to potential strategic decisions towards a more resilient and inclusive model of urban growth.