چكيده لاتين :
Decision Support System to Improve Public Participation Process in the
Urban Planning of Egyptian Cities
Hatem Mahmoud* and Takafumi Arima**
*Doctor Candidate, Graduate School of Human-Environment Studies, Kyushu University, Japan
Assistant Lecturer, Dept. of Architecture, Aswan Faculty of Engineering, Egypt
E-mail: hatem3us@hotmail.com, Tel: +81-92-642-3348, Fax: +81-92-642-3349
**Associate Professor, Faculty of Human-Environment Studies, Kyushu University, Japan
(Received 16/01/1432H.; accepted for publication 21/06/1432H.)
Abstract. Faced with the challenges of urban growth, the Egyptian government has, since 2005, adopted a policy
of participation in the decision-making of urban planning projects with the aim of enhancing urban growth
management. As this is a new policy, shortcomings are inevitable, especially with regard to communication among
the stakeholders and participation diversity. This study presents the Decision Support System (DSS), a computer
prototype that introduces multiple tools aiming at facilitating more intensive and expanded participation.
Developing this prototype involved three stages: 1) Collecting data about the participation process in Egypt and
preparing an initial prototype; 2) Evaluating the prototype feasibility, collecting improving suggestions, as well as
assessing the strengths and weaknesses of using such prototypes in the participation process through questionnaire
responses from 50 Egyptian urban planners experienced in similar participatory activities; and 3) Finalizing the
prototype based on the evaluation. The results show that shifting to such prototypes based on Information and
Communication Technologies (ICTs) is likely to facilitate and promote more active participation among urban
planners. For the proposed system to be truly effective, however, there should be greater emphasis on developing
government policies regarding participation in decision-making in Egyptian urban planning projects
