New towns in Western Europe and Egypt, experiences and lessons
This paper presents a general overview on the subject of the new towns movement in countries of Western Europe and Egypt. It focuses on the evolutionary origins, best practices, present situation and future strategies of urban development. The main aim of research is to investigate possible practices and strategies to solve the Egyptian new towns problems and promote their future success. It is important to note that since 1974, Egypt has been carrying out a national strategic plan for facing problems, such as urban degradation, uncontrolled urbanization and rapid population growth through the construction of new towns. The most successful practices from Western Europe and Egypt were analyzed and compared with each other. Comparative analysis includes new towns programs in France with the case study Cergy-Pontoise. The case study in Spain concerns the town of Tres Cantos. Borg El Arab is the focus of the Egyptian case study. Lessons and recommendations are presented for the improvement of the current Egyptian new towns planning program. Many recent studies are conducted to compare the different European new towns experiences[e.g. 1, 2, 3, 4]. Researches about new towns in Egypt compare goals and results of the program to define their success [e.g. 5, 6, 7]. The researcher already published about the UK’s new towns experience in comparison with the Egyptian new town program[8]. This paper aims to continue the work of revealing lessons and best practices through comparison of the city planning experiences of the Western European and Egyptian cities.