Decision Support System to Improve Public Participation Process in the Urban Planning of Egyptian Cities

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.