A Customized Indicator-Based Tool to Assess Resiliency of Egyptian Coastal Cities: Case Study of Red Sea Cities

Abstract

The increasing severity of climate changes and environmental risks led to the paradigm shift in urban planning towards increasing the resilience of cities. However, coastal cities are on the frontline facing these risks and challenges. The local context in developing countries is adding more pressure on city resilience. In Egypt, the Red Sea cities are increasingly exposed to flash floods, and storms under the uncertainties of environmental risks. They have special local environmental, social, cultural, and economic characteristics. This research aims to develop a customized community resiliency assessment tool, which considers the local context of Egyptian coastal cities. The literature shows that more than 30 tools and frameworks to assess resilience have been developed. However, this paper argues that indicator-based tools of assessment should be tailored to reflect the local context. From here, available tools from different perspectives and their associated indicators were reviewed and filtered according to the Egyptian context and national data drivers. Then the special environmental, social, cultural, and economic features of the study area “Red Sea” were highlighted as a reference to the next step of indicator selection. The appropriate criteria were developed and tested using data of Red Sea cities (i.e. Ras-Gharib, Hurghada, Safaga, El-Qusair, Marsa-Alam, Halaib and Shalateen). The case studies application and assessments included analyses of environmental parameters, and statistical analyses of social, and economic parameters. It showed high applicability and produced a resilience index of the coastal cities of the red sea region.