scholarly journals A holistic framework for reshaping urban energy infrastructure in Global South cities, a case study of the Greater Cairo Region, Egypt

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yesmeen Khalifa ◽  
Sharon George ◽  
Philip Catney
Keyword(s):  
Global South ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
Sectoral Planning ◽  
Challenges And Opportunities ◽  
Urban Energy ◽  
Greater Cairo ◽  
Development Context ◽  
Circular Flows ◽  
Greater Cairo Region

Abstract Key Messages- Cities are complex systems that need integrated approaches to understand their characteristics and to identify challenges and opportunities for sustainable development.- Context-based and tailored solutions are required for achieving SDGs and developing circular flows. This is particularly important in the Global South.- Integrated and cross-sectoral planning and collaboration are necessary to improve the development of sustainable strategies and interventions to reduce trade-offs. Areas like the Greater Cairo Region in Egypt demonstrate the complexities of action across formal/informal sectors of waste management.

scholarly journals Holistic systems-thinking for policy coherence: A case study of socio-institutional challenges and opportunities for improved adoption of nature-based solutions

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cyndi Castro
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Cognitive Mapping ◽  
Policy Design ◽  
Management Strategies ◽  
Dynamics Modeling ◽  
Policy Coherence ◽  
Data Intensive ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
Challenges And Opportunities

Nature-based solutions (NBSs) are often managed according to hydro-environmental characteristics that disregard the complex interactions between decision-makers, society, and the environment. Numerous barriers to NBS adoption have been identified as stemming from human behavior (e.g., community buy-in, political will, culture), yet we lack an understanding of how such factors interrelate to inform policy design. The identification of synergies and trade-offs among diverse management strategies is necessary to generate optimal results from limited institutional resources. System dynamics modeling (SDM) has been used within the environmental community to aid decision-making by bringing together diverse stakeholders and defining their shared understanding of complex behavior. While these approaches have enhanced collaboration efforts and have increased awareness of complexity, SDM models often result in numerous feedback loops that are difficult to disentangle without further, data-intensive modeling. When investigating the complexities of human decision-making, we often lack robust empirical datasets for SDM quantification. An alternative to SDM is fuzzy cognitive mapping (FCM), which combines the strengths of stakeholder knowledge with network theory to produce semi-quantitative scenarios of system change. However, sole reliance upon computer-simulated outputs may obscure our understanding of the underlying system behavior. Therefore, the aim of this study is to assess the applicability and strength of combining SDM and FCM to both identify areas of policy coherence from stakeholder engagement and also to explain the emergence of synergies and trade-offs according to causal loop logic. This framework is demonstrated through a case study of NBS policy-making and socio-institutional feedbacks in Houston, Texas, USA.

scholarly journals Crime in relation to urban design. Case study: The Greater Cairo Region

2016 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 925-938 ◽  
Author(s):  
Heba Adel ◽  
Mohamed Salheen ◽  
Randa A. Mahmoud
Keyword(s):  
Urban Design ◽  
Greater Cairo ◽  
Design Case ◽  
Design Case Study ◽  
Greater Cairo Region

scholarly journals Dimensions of Urban Blight in Emerging Southern Cities: A Case Study of Accra-Ghana

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (15) ◽  
pp. 8399
Author(s):  
Sally Adofowaa Mireku ◽  
Zaid Abubakari ◽  
Javier Martinez
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Practices ◽  
Global South ◽  
Economic Decline ◽  
City Development ◽  
Study Approach ◽  
Population Loss ◽  
Land Transfer ◽  
Urban Blight ◽  
Global North

Urban blight functions inversely to city development and often leads to cities’ deterioration in terms of physical beauty and functionality. While the underlying causes of urban blight in the context of the global north are mainly known in the literature to be population loss, economic decline, deindustrialisation and suburbanisation, there is a research gap regarding the root causes of urban blight in the global south, specifically in prime areas. Given the differences in the property rights regimes and economic growth trajectories between the global north and south, the underlying reasons for urban blight cannot be assumed to be the same. This study, thus, employed a qualitative method and case study approach to ascertain in-depth contextual reasons and effects for urban blight in a prime area, East Legon, Accra-Ghana. Beyond economic reasons, the study found that socio-cultural practices of landholding and land transfer in Ghana play an essential role in how blighted properties emerge. In the quest to preserve cultural heritage/identity, successors of old family houses (the ancestral roots) do their best to stay in them without selling or redeveloping them. The findings highlight the less obvious but relevant functions that blighted properties play in the city core at the micro level of individual families in fostering social cohesion and alleviating the need to pay higher rents. Thus, in the global south, we conclude that there is a need to pay attention to the less obvious roles that so-called blighted properties perform and to move beyond the default negative perception that blighted properties are entirely problematic.

scholarly journals Educating for the Environment: The Role of the Host Destination in Education Travel Programs

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (15) ◽  
pp. 8351
Author(s):  
Brack W. Hale
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Issues ◽  
Global South ◽  
Professional Experience ◽  
Educational Activities ◽  
Educational Travel ◽  
Local Partnerships

The benefits from educational travel programs (ETPs) for students have been well-documented in the literature, particularly for programs looking at sustainability and environmental issues. However, the impacts the ETPs have on the destinations that host them have been less frequently considered; most of these studies focus, understandably, on destinations in the Global South. This paper draws on a framework of sustainable educational travel to examine how ETPs affect their host destinations in two case study destinations, based on the author’s professional experience in these locations, interviews with host organizations that use the lens of the pandemic, and information from government databases. The findings highlight an awareness of the sustainability of the destination, the importance of good, local partnerships with organizations well-connected in their communities, and educational activities that can benefit both students and hosts. Nonetheless, we have a long way to go to understand the full impacts of ETPs on their host destinations and thus truly learn to avoid them.

scholarly journals Indicators, security and sovereignty during COVID-19 in the Global South

2021 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 249-260
Author(s):  
John Harrington
Keyword(s):  
Global Governance ◽  
Third World ◽  
Global South ◽  
Governance Mechanisms ◽  
Health Governance ◽  
The Face ◽  
Global North ◽  
The Government

AbstractThe spread of COVID-19 has seen a contest over health governance and sovereignty in Global South states, with a focus on two radically distinct modes: (1) indicators and metrics and (2) securitisation. Indicators have been a vehicle for the government of states through the external imposition and internal self-application of standards and benchmarks. Securitisation refers to the calling-into-being of emergencies in the face of existential threats to the nation. This paper contextualises both historically with reference to the trajectory of Global South states in the decades after decolonisation, which saw the rise and decline of Third-World solidarity and its replacement by neoliberalism and global governance mechanisms in health, as in other sectors. The interaction between these modes and their relative prominence during COVID-19 is studied through a brief case-study of developments in Kenya during the early months of the pandemic. The paper closes with suggestions for further research and a reflection on parallel trends within Global North states.

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