Egyptian cities suffer from the spread of informal areas, which include many urban and environmental problems. The government makes efforts to upgrade the informal areas. Yet these efforts lack the sustainability dimension. Thus, the paper aims to create a reference framework for the upgrading of informal settlements to create sustainable communities. By suggesting elements for assessing sustainability that help to upgrade informal settlements and involving users in the priority problem-solving to include Egypt's 2030 Vision.
The main research problem is the absence of sustainability in urban upgrading projects of informal settlements areas.
The research methodology depends on the theoretical, analytical, and applied approaches; the theoretical approach reviews the definition of slums and informal settlements, studies Egypt's 2030 Vision and the previous literature on the sustainable development of informal settlements to conclude criteria for assessing sustainable informal settlements , and then uses the analytical approach to analyze two informal settlements in Egypt, which Fayoum governorate, El Alwaia and al- Hakora areas, The reference framework is then applied to these areas to measure their effectiveness.
The research concludes that informal settlements in Egypt need to apply sustainability principles to solve their problems, it is difficult for informal settlement dwellers to pay the cost of using solar cells and some sustainability applications, so developers and the government must sponsor and help implement sustainability in informal settlements.
Some users practice some sustainability applications without realizing it, such as selling waste (cartons and plastics), but there is no waste separation, which makes it difficult for the individuals who work there.