Resilience of Informal Areas in Megacities – Magnitude, Challenges, and Policies: Strategic Environmental Assessment and Upgrading Guidelines to Attain Sustainable Development Goals

Prof. Dr. Mohsen Aboulnaga is a Professor of Sustainable Built Environments at the Faculty of Engineering at Cairo University, Egypt. He has more than thirty-five years of experience working in higher education, government, senior management, and consultancy on the issues of sustainable cities, climate change adaptation, sustainable development, sustainable energy, and energy policy development. Professor Aboulnaga is a senior expert on sustainable urban development, including green and smart cities, energy efficiency, and green building. His areas of competency encompass sustainable development, strategy planning, policy development, low-carbon society, sustainable energy, and climate change. Other areas of expertise include executive capacity building for local governments and coaching and training on strategic planning and leadership, Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), innovation, and urban farming in cities. Professor Aboulnaga has developed many Concept Notes for leading international entities such as ENI ZOHR Sustainability initiative (2019), European Union (EU) funded projects (2018-2019) and Sustainable Urban Development for The Union for the Mediterranean (UfM) in 2017. Recently, Professor Aboulnaga organized with Technical University of Lisbon, Portugal, and University of Florence, Italy, the international design competition “HOME-KIT Sustainable Modular Houses for Slum Dwellers amidst COVID-19”, which was concluded in July 2021 in Lisbon. Professor Aboulnaga is an author of four books published by Springer and 28 chapters in books published by Springer and Elsevier. He has also been invited keynote speaker and speaker to more than 390 international and regional conferences, seminars, workshops, and training programs, and has more than 170 international publications and presentations.

Professor Dr. Mona Farid Badran is a Digital Economy Professor at the Faculty of Economics and Political Science, Cairo University, and a Digital Economy Expert at the World Bank, Washington DC. She received her Ph.D. from Cairo University, and a master’s degree in economics from Georgia State University, Atlanta. Professor Badran has published extensively on topics related to the ICT sector in emerging markets and Arab countries such as digital inclusion, local loop unbundling, fixed and mobile broadband, socioeconomic dynamics in the uptake of ICT, cloud computing, data localization, e- and m-health, mobile money services, digital economy, and digital platforms. Her research topics focus primarily on the socioeconomic impact of ICT in developing countries, particularly, on marginalized cohorts such as youth and women. Moreover, Professor Badran has extensive consulting experience with the public sector. She advised the Egyptian Ministers of Investment for more than six years at the Ministry of Investment, where she led the research department. Besides her consulting experience in government, Professor Badranalso has extensive consulting experience with the private sector, such as Orange Mobile Operator, telecom industry bodies such as GSMA, and international organizations such as the ILO and the ITU. Furthermore, she has an extensive track record in publishing in the best international journals in her domain such as Telecommunications Policy Journal. Professor Badran’s current research interests are about the impact of new disruptive technologies such as AI and digital platforms on economic growth and development in emerging markets. Professor Badran received numerous international awards for her international publications record and her academic achievements from Cairo University, Georgia State University, and the International Telecommunications Society.

Mai Barakat is an Architect with more than seven years of experience in academia, sustainable urban development, and climate change. Mrs. Barakat has been a Lecturer and Research Assistant at Misr University for Science and Technology in Giza, Egypt, since 2017. She is a competent architect and freelancer with many skills in sustainable urban development, strategic environment assessment, and energy efficiency in low-income dwellings. Her areas of interest are sustainability, sustainable development, and sustainable built environment, including energy efficiency and green cities in developing countries. Her areas of competency include sustainable communities, informal areas upgrading, and climate change vulnerability and adaptation. Other areas of expertise include informal areas upgrading related to cultural heritage and low-carbon society. Between 2019 and 2021, she spoke and participated in two international conferences, namely: the 5^th Mediterranean Green Forum (MGF-5) held in Florence, Italy from 3-5 September 2019; and The World Renewable Energy Congress (WREC 2021) held at the Technical University of Lisbon, Portugal from 26-30 July 2021. Mrs. Barakat is an author of threebook chapters, which were published by Springer Nature between 2019 and 2021; and invited speaker at two international conferences. She has three international published papers and presentations. Mrs. Barakat has two published book chapters in the Innovative Renewable Energy series book Green Buildings and Renewable Energy (Springer). She obtained her Bachelor’s of Science (B.Sc.) in Architectural Engineering from the Faculty of Engineering, Cairo University in 2013 and a Master’s of Science (M.Sc.) in Sustainable Environmental Design from the same university in 2019.