Participatory Landscape Design of New Cities in Egypt: Correlation Model of Related Variables, Case of 6th of October City

Abstract

Participatory landscape has become a strategic concern for achieving sustainable environments and in enhancing the social awareness within the external context of residential neighborhoods. However, few studies have explored the right methodologies for implementing such approaches, and none of them have presented a detailed model that can guide decision makers during its application, especially in the Egyptian communities with their different income and social levels. The paper thus presents a statistical approach for the measurement of the residents’ willingness to participate in such processes in comparison with the degree of involvement proposed by practitioners in three neighborhoods of different income and social levels in 6th of October City, as a remarkable example of one of the new Egyptian cities. It deduces statistical correlations between each of the variables representing the degree of residents’ participation once according to their willing and another according to practitioners’ recommendation for their degree of involvement as compared to the other stakeholders, with the functional, environmental, aesthetical, economic, maintainability, and sociability quality aspects of the landscape that would be achieved upon participation processes. Results highlighted the fact that levels of participation and significance of the roles of other stakeholders vary from one neighborhood to another and also vary according to their impact on the different functional, environmental, aesthetical, economic, maintainability, and sociability landscape qualities. Accordingly, it is necessary to conduct such action-oriented research before applying any participatory landscape approaches as there is no single unique model for successful participatory landscape approaches, which should be rather viewed as a dynamic transformation sustained by the local identity of the community, to overcome the contradiction between the recognition of the diversity of cultural practices and the problematic selection criteria of “outstanding universal value.”