ALEXANDRIA UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF ENGINEERING

10th INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE "ROLE OF ENGINEERING TOWARDS A BETTER ENVIRONMENT"

(RETBE’14) 15-17 DECEMBER 2014 ALEXANDRIA, EGYPT.

TRANSIT ORIENTED DEVELOPMENT (TOD) AS A HOLISTIC APPRAOCH FOR FUTURE URBANISM IN EGYPT

M. M. YOUSSEF AND A. HOSNY

Department of Urban Planning, Faculty of Urban and Regional Planning, Cairo University

Department of Architectural Engineering, Tanta University

ABSTRACT: In the last two centuries cities and urban communities have evolved around different transit nodes such as different transportation systems and land use urban spaces. Transit has gained a growing impact on life linking jobs, housing, recreation, and services in many metropolitan areas and smart growth policies as a best practice examples in western urbanism. Transit oriented development is functional integration of land use and transits by creating a compact, livable, mixed use urban communities. This research discusses the process that takes advantage of transit oriented development TOD principles and connectivity by applying it on a conceptual regional and urban planning spatial level in Sinai Peninsula as part of International competition to propose new potentials for future Egyptian urbanism. The paper illustrates an attempt to create a holistic vision to urbanism in Sinai Peninsula, Egypt future urban development from district urban design level up to regional and urban planning. The paper main objectives are as follow; 1.Understanding Transit Oriented Development TOD concept in urbanism and spatial planning.2 Discuss the future scenario methodology proposed by the author to create TOD driven new Egyptian urban DNA that can be utilized in new Egyptian urban communities.3 Physical and visual configuration of the proposed new model representing the Egyptian Urban communities based on the Transit Urban Development.. The paper is an attempt to provide spatial solutions for future Egyptian urban DNA that can be based on more public transit approach concept that best practice in the last decade proved that enhanced sustainable urban development in small communities. It is believed that taking the principles of TOD and apply it to the case of new development in Sinai Peninsula will enhance the process of creating new communities plans and designs in future Egypt as an assumption. Evaluation of the degree of success needs further research that could possibly compare TOD concept with other smart growth policies, this paper focus only on how and where to apply TOD concept to create new Egyptian urban DNA that are differ from the current chaotic urbanism and push urban policy ahead towards sustainable communities and smart growth concept that is yet not applied in any previous Egyptian urban policies.

1

1. INTRODUCTION

1.1 Methodology

The paper methodology can be described as applying the theoretical framework of sustainable communities and transit oriented development in a future vision that could describe spatial characteristics of future Egyptian urban DNA. It can be summarized as follow;

1. Define Transit oriented Development TOD and illustrate its advantages and capabilities to fulfill small communities as a smart growth policy that is suitable for a region like Sinai Peninsula.

2. Encapsulate the fundamentals of TOD into new Egyptian spatial structure that is based on transit, sustainable and vibrant communities.

3. Weave the results in a future scenario building narrative description to describe the social, economic and physical results that could create a new Egyptian urban DNA.

1.2 What is transit – transit oriented development and why could be a solution to Egyptian Urbanism

During the past decades Transit-Oriented Development represented a fundamental rethinking of the consumer preferences and for the location of uses or transportation strategies. As a mean of promoting smart growth, TOD infuses vitality and lifestyle choices. In most of the cases Transit – Oriented Development emerged as a consequence of the important makeover of tram into the sophisticated and modern light rail system. This transportation system is designed to keep people away from their own cars in the favor of public transport use. Meanwhile, a fundamental rethinking of the public transport surrounding area became a real concern. There is no unanimously accepted definition of TOD, as the continuous shifts in consumer preferences, employer location strategies and transportation planning values must be considered. Situated at the convergence of these three important elements of the city, Transit- Oriented Development relies upon the potential built up by their synergy. Typically, the definition of TOD is following a straight descriptive line based upon the mix of uses, the densities and the vicinity of public transport1.

Figure 1. Key elements in defining TOD, in a descriptive approach

There is no generally accepted definition of Transit – Oriented Development. Nevertheless, the definitions of TOD share some common traits as seen in figure 2. Stakeholders and agencies provide different definitions that particularly concern their area of intervention. Some of them

2

emphasize high density and mixture of uses, while for others the alternative public transportation system weights more to the disadvantage of the mass diffusion of automobile. Most of them strive for a high quality sustainable environment and a livable, active community. In that sense current urbanism in Egypt strives for more environmentally approaches that can solve the problem of concentrated metropolitan areas, pollutions and inappropriate land uses mix that spread all over most cities and communities in the Nile valley. Transit oriented development and smart growth could be some answers to that problem of the current urban DNA.

Figure 2. Shared elements in defining TOD

1.2 Transit oriented development and place-making

In transit oriented development attention generally has to be paid for turning the places attractive and pedestrian- friendly. Urban design is no exception from the rules that make a Transit-Oriented Development successful. It draws together the many strands of place-making into the creation of beautiful places with their own distinctive identity. Key aspects in developing a quality urban design are defined by providing good thinking principles in turning an area into a healthy and friendly pedestrian environment. Table 1 demonstrate the conclusion of a recent study in the

3

United Kingdom used a case study in order to determine the economic, social and environmental value of a proper urban design. The study provided a variety of benefits – like potential increased land values, enhanced regeneration of the area or reduced running costs - designing a useful framework of involved stakeholders and short-term or long-term values that each of them might capture from the project2

Table 1. Urban Design Criteria Proposed by Urban Design Compendium, UK

Places for people Places must be safe, comfortable, varied and attractive, distinctive, providing variety, choice and fun, becoming thus used and esteemed. Vibrant places offer opportunities for meeting people, playing in the street and watching the world go by. Enrich the existing New developments should enrich the qualities of existing urban places, complementing its setting. This applies at every scale - the region, the city, the town, the neighborhood, and the street. Make connections Places need to be easy to get to and be integrated physically and visually with their surroundings. This requires attention to how to get around by foot, bicycle, public transport or the car. Work with the Landscape Places that strike a balance between the natural and man - made environment and utilize each site’s intrinsic resources - climate, landform, landscape and ecology - to maximize energy conservation and amenity. Mix Uses and Forms Stimulating, enjoyable and convenient places meet a variety of demands from the widest possible range of users, amenities and social groups. They also merge different building forms, uses and densities. Design for Change New development needs to be flexible enough to respond to future changes in use, lifestyle and demography. This means designing for energy and resource efficiency; creating flexibility and introducing new approaches to transportation, traffic and parking3.

1.3 Goals and Objectives of TOD

Because there is a wide spectrum of definition approaches, TOD’s objectives may be differently prioritized depending on the achievements that every involved stakeholder aims. There is a common ground though as TOD ought to reach a complex functional integration of public transport system and the surrounding developments, as well as the synergy among all its uses. The process of generating and implementing Transit – Oriented Development must be designed with the concern for the forceful complexity that each situation might develop. There are many ways to state the definition for TOD with common elements though: a mix of uses at high densities within walking distances from public transport stations; but places that stand for this kind of development are sites with sophisticated and diverse characteristics6. Therefore, a tendency to force a one-size-fits-all solution onto the different types of sites is not appropriate. The types of projects that might be appropriate in older neighborhoods close to downtown are different from those that might work in newly growing areas, even with similar density goals7. Transit – Oriented Development projects are categorized according to the context of the area they are located in and

4

they analyze the level of densities, the level of land-use mix and the public transport services. There has been, thus created a typology containing five categories. First mentioned in The New Transit Town: Best Practices in Transit – Oriented Development1, this delineation was further regarded as a starting point for defining TOD’s typology as seen in figure 3. Through these parameters mentioned the application of TOD in the process of creating new Egyptian urban DNA could be the benchmark to evaluate later between the proposed new spatial planning concept by the authors and the current ones existing in Egyptian urbanism in that sense it will support the argument of this paper which is focus on envisioning what the future urbanism in Egypt might look like through the tools of scenario building technique applied during the preparation of the Egypt future city competition. The next part of the paper discusses what might be the spatial configuration of new development in Sinai Peninsula if TOD applied as an approach of smart growth policy to create new Egyptian urban DNA communities that are based on sustainable development principles.

Figure 3. The connection between the performance criteria needed to define Transit – Oriented Projects and some of the goals stated in the TOD projects by involved stakeholders4,5

5

2. FUTURE CITY SCENARIO BUILDING APPROACH In search for future city and to recreate new urban DNA that is taking into considerations the

old urban problems with new urban philosophy embedded in the new one such as sustainable urban development and transit oriented development approaches. To approach the completion requirements there was two main concerns. First, the concern of how long it will take and what is the necessary tools that will encourage people to move towards new urban sites, these engaged looking at the future with more methodological approach such as future sciences and scenario building techniques which labeled as the social reality of Egyptian future city. Second, is concerned with the

spatial configurations of the new city how it looks like, what sort of activities and how land uses are spatially distributed according to new planning approaches such as transit oriented development TOD and sustainable urban development figure 4. It is clear now with the proper strategic future plans such as Egypt urban development plan 2052 that transportations, urban and economic

activities that a transit oriented strategy can be established in Sinai Peninsula regarding the current mega projects running in meantime. Youssef and Hosny8 discussed in Details the future scenario building for new urban DNA and how people move from the current urban DNA to the new proposed future city. The rational of this is we as a team are looking for a desired situation in the future and backcasting is serving well in this case, backcasting scenario usually starts with a desired situation in the future, in our case the desired future is reaching to the embryo of new urban DNA that is based on sustainable communities and green architecture principles, the results are new transit oriented development urban nodes system proposed in Sinai peninsula that start with one node Future City and can be replicable with different size and function as it discussed in TOD theoretical framework above. The future regional potentials that are dictate Egypt Urban Development Strategy 2052 has been summarized in figure 5 that propose Sinai as future destination for new urban DNA that are based on sustainable communities that provide new urban context suitable for the new transit system. Figure 4 indicates the theoretical concept of transit Oriented Development shapes of replication within a transit system and typical land uses planning

Figure 4. Land use distribution in a typical TOD node and theoretical planning of nodes along a

transit line9

6

for each node8.The stages to urbanize Sinai are in figure 5. The proposed node spatial configurations for the new Egyptian urban DNA is as follow8;

Figure5. Future strategic urban development corridors (Transit Oriented Development) vision for Sinai Peninsula10

The potentials provided in Egypt Urban Development Strategy 2052 , above left, provided authors with enough data to propose the urban development corridors concept stage 1 above right, it starts with Suez canal corridor due to the existing assets that will help initiating the transit system such as Sharq Eltafriha logistic port. The second stage of development, above middle, upgrade the transit system to include middle Sinai and push development towards the heart of the area the final stage of development, fi peninsula, right figure, upgraded the system to include south Sinai and to integrated the system with the existing and new proposed urban communities that formulate new urban DNA that are based on sustainability concept and public transit system. 7

2.1 Regional planning concept

The TOD approach Encourages compact, mixed use and pedestrian friendly neighborhoods – containing housing, workplaces, shops, schools, parks and entertainment and civic facilities – centered around transit stations. It will shape the features of new urban DNA that encourage sustainability and green architecture figure 5. In addition, Individual TODs are typically laid out in circular or nodal arrangements – their edges defined by a 5 to 10 minute walk, or 400 to 800 meters, from the central transit stop. The proposed TOD for Sinai Peninsula will promotes the increased use of transit by generating and attracting ridership. Rapid, rail-based transit corridors can become host to multiple TODs, spaced 1 to 2 kilometers apart8.

2.2 Location and potentials

The starting of crossing to the new urban DNA is Sinai Peninsula. The location has been rationalized because of time factor 3 hours from the Nile valley, the link with the Valley is provided by various roads infrastructure, we have the Elqantara Bridge over the Suez Canal, and the existing road network in North-west Sinai where the city will be built is providing connections to the Nile Valley, North Sinai with Touristic and Industrial activities (jobs), the Transit Oriented Development (TOD) concept than has been applied to the future city needs infrastructure upgrade and tweaks over the existing road network which decrease the risk of failure because we are not starting from scratch but we are building and enhancing the existing infrastructure to carry on with the Egyptian future urban DNA The Rationale behind choosing this site for our future city proposal is:

1. Renewable and green energy resources: According to the research has been developed in the Egyptian Urban National Urban Strategy 2052, it studies pointed out Sinai as a major source for wind and solar energy, The good wind in the Gulf of Suez as to be used in generating electricity for the new city in the current status of global energy crisis. The solar energy in this site North Sinai will be used for generating electricity and providing houses and industries with the enough clean energy required.

2. Urban economics: Being near future promising project such as "Shark Al-tafrea'a” free trading zone and logistic area makes the location plausible in order to boost jobs generation generate. In addition distinguish the city with remarkable position for trading movement in the region either inner trade or international trade which leads to more jobs for the residents of the city.

3. Transportation. Being centralized in Suez Canal connection the proposed technological and green industries in the city with globe as it's the best place to link the city to the world either by land, sea or air.

2.3 New Egyptian urban DNA Spatial planning concept and urban design criteria

8

Figure 6. New Egyptian urban DNA spatial concept, land use and transit distribution, activities allocations and transit system design to connect various land uses10

above left connecting each land use with other areas with tow sub systems major transit line that connect each node with the other node and public transit with connect various land uses in each node. Each node can major a different economic base that allow multiplication of nodes with various planning economy that depends on each node’s function in the transit system, figure middle left. The starting point of transit system is shown in figure below left close to Suez Canal and acts as ignition points for the whole development system.

Figure 6 describes the planning concept for each transit nodes inspired its shape of the human DNA which provide potentials in planning land uses and green industrial areas in a way each node contain a transit stop that works as a central area, followed by residential areas that will be walkable from transit stop and on the fringe of each node industrial areas are located, Above right. The transit system proposed ,

9

Figure 7. Elements of proposed urban design DNA for Major TOD Node10

Figure 7 above shows the elements of new urban design DNA proposed for new Egyptian transit oriented development system in Sinai, it shows the central area of major transit terminal surrounded by first ring of mixed use and commercial activities , the second ring contains the residential areas and the third rings shows the green industrial areas. The node centralized by green corridor integrates land uses together and creating major Green Park that utilized as a transition points for public transport system that divided the node to major previous mentioned land uses.

10

3. CONCLUSIONS

The paper discussed how to apply Transit Oriented Development TOD concept as sustainable community approach to create new Egyptian urban DNA that can achieve sustainability and create new urban characteristics in Egypt that will encourage spreading urbanism away of the Nile valley and take advantage of 95 % of undeveloped areas in Egypt. TOD can be one of the future development solutions that can enable spreading the Egyptian urbanism throughout the country and taking advantages of the natural resources that can produce clean energy and take part of green urban economy and activities.

Figure 7. Elements of proposed new urban DNA for Egyptian transit oriented development in Sinai10

Figure 7 above analyze in details the components of urban structure of the new transit oriented development proposed for new urban DNA, it shows that principles of TOD are applied in main transit that connect various TOD nodes together, the major transit stops located in over the transit line and acts as a central area for each node, followed by walkable residential areas then green industrial areas in the fringes , all elements connected together with sub public transit line that facilitate transportation from leisure, work and resident areas. The master plan for the future city is shown below left with a 3d perspective that shows the visual image of the nodes connected all together and form a new breed of Egyptian urban settlements that are depends on transit system and sustainable communities.

11

The results from the conceptual thinking of the future city competition’s outcomes envision the authors to a potential to recreate a new Egyptian urban DNA that is based on TOD concept which needs further investigations on the national and regional policies devoted to Sinai peninsula to integrate TOD concept within the promising development of the Suez Canal Economic free zone proposal currently running and what spatial communities allocation can accelerate urban development in a long forgotten areas of Egypt.

4. REFERENCES

1. Gilbert, D. and S. Ginn. Transit Oriented Sustainable Development. Queensland Department of Public Works for: The National Taskforce on Promoting Best Practice in Transport and Land- Use Planning, August 2001.

2. Dittmar, H. and G. Ohland. The New Transit Town. Best practices in Transit-Oriented Development. Washington, D.C.: Island Press, 2004.

3. Urban Design Compendium: English Partnerships, the Housing Corporation. London: English Partnerships, 2000.

4. Cervero, R., C. Ferrell and S. Murphy. Transit-Oriented Development and Joint Development in the United States: A Literature Review. TCRP Research Results Digest Number 52, National Research Council: Washington, D.C. 2002.

5. Cervero, R., S. Murphy, C. Ferrell et al. Transit-Oriented Development in the United States: Experiences, Challenges and Prospects. Washington: Transportation Research Board. 2004.

6. Youssef, M . Promoting sustainable urban development in rapid metropolitan growth: the case of Greater Cairo Metropolitan Region, unpublished PhD Thesis, Liverpool, UK 2007.

7. Center for Transit-Oriented Development. Hidden in Plain Sight – Capturing the Demand for Housing near Transit. Reconnecting America and the Center for Transit-Oriented Development, September 2004.

8. Youssef, M. M and Hosny, A. Promoting Sustainable Urban Development and Transit Oriented Development TOD towards creating New Egyptian Urban DNA. RETBE 12 Conference, , 9th international Conference, Alexandria University 2012.

9. Calthorpe, P. The next American metropolis: Ecology, community, and the American dream. New York: Princeton Architectural Press 1993.

10. General Organization for Physical Planning (GOPP). National Strategic Plan for Urban Development 2052, Ministry of Housing, Utilities and Urban Development, Cairo, Egypt 2012.

12