Egypt has recently embarked upon preparing an ambitious national urban plan for the year
2050, with industry as one of its proposed economic bases. Yet, it is widely agreed that
existing industrial zones in Egypt are not sustainable. Future industrial developments are
prone to the same destiny, if the process of founding the existing industrial zones is going to
control the development of future ones. In this regard, the Egyptian government has taken
some steps to incorporate industrial ecology to enhance sustainable development.
Presently, the question which poses itself is: to what extent have these steps considerably
changed the process through which industrial zones are founded in Egypt, and what are the
factors which help shape this process? An answer to this question is necessary for a real shift
towards industrial ecology.
This research attempts to construct a conceptual framework of the process through which
eco industrial parks could be normatively developed. This framework is seen in this paper as
a first step towards understanding the current process of establishing industrial zones in
Egypt, and developing it, if needed. To construct this framework, this theoretical study
analyses normative and empirical literature available in the field of industrial ecology,
governance and sustainable development, looking for overarching governing
understandings, contextual settings, and planning processes through which industrial
ecology could potentially be brought to reality. A synthesis of these dispersed
ideas/practices into a coherent framework constitutes the contribution of this research.