A System Dynamic Based DSS for Ecological Urban Management in Alexandria, Egypt

Authors: Mona M. Salem, Khaled S. Al-Hagla, Hany M. Ayad

Abstract:

The concept of urban metabolism has increasingly been employed in a diverse range of disciplines as a mean to analyze and theorize the city. Urban ecology has a particular focus on the implications of applying the metabolism concept to the urban realm. This approach has been developed by a few researchers, though it has rarely if ever been used in policy development for city planning. The aim of this research is to use ecologically informed urban planning interventions to increase the sustainability of urban metabolism; with special focus on land stock as a most important city resource by developing a system dynamic based DSS. This model identifies two critical management strategy variables for the Strategic Urban Plan Alexandria SUP 2032. As a result, this comprehensive and precise quantitative approach is needed to monitor, measure, evaluate and observe dynamic urban changes working as a decision support system (DSS) for policy making.

Keywords: Alexandria SUP 2032, DSS, ecology, land resource, LULCC, management, metabolism, model, scenarios, System dynamics, urban development.

Digital Object Identifier (DOI): doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1315945

References:

[1] Broto, V. C., Allen, A., & Rapoport, E. (2012). Interdisciplinary perspectives on urban metabolism. Journal of Industrial Ecology, 16(6), 851-861.
[2] Newman, P. W. (1999). Sustainability and cities: extending the metabolism model. Landscape and urban planning, 44(4), 219-226.I. S. Jacobs and C. P.
[3] Golubiewski, N. (2012). Is there a metabolism of an urban ecosystem? An ecological critique. Ambio, 41(7), 751-764.
[4] Abdou Azaz, L. K. (2004). Monitoring, modelling and managing urban growth in Alexandria, Egypt using remote sensing and GIS.
[5] Bhatta, B. (2010). Causes and consequences of urban growth and sprawl. In Analysis of urban growth and sprawl from remote sensing data (pp. 17-36). Springer Berlin Heidelberg.
[6] Forrester, J. W. (1994). System dynamics, systems thinking, and soft OR. System dynamics review, 10(2‐3), 245-256.
[7] Rykiel, E. J. (1996). Testing ecological models: the meaning of validation. Ecological modelling, 90(3), 229-244.
[8] Xu, Z., Cheng, G., Zhang, Z., Templet, P. H., & Yin, Y. (2003). The calculation and analysis of ecological footprints, diversity and development capacity of China. Journal of Geographical Sciences, 13(1), 19-26.
[9] Gopp, Strategic Urban Plan Alexandria 2032 - Alexandria SUP 2032, unpublished.