Based on a case study of Alexandria city, Egypt, this paper investigates the configuration, interrelation, and integration of urban expansion within the framework of sustainability transitions to enhance the performance of sociotechnical transitions. It explores two main arguments; first, to evaluate the recent urban planning innovations, and second, to raise awareness of the participatory planning model to enhance the involvement of the three pillars to better integrate urban sustainable development. It presumes there is a linkage between urban sustainability transitions and the geographical transitions. It further evaluates whether this linkage would benefit accommodating the rapid population growth of Alexandria. This research applies an empirical methodology to test concepts and patterns known from theory generating three scenarios from empirical data. Moving beyond the ‘niche–regime dichotomy’, this study concludes that innovative practices and vested interests are typically constituted in a dualistic manner and tend to incite processes of change in both.

This article examines land readjustment program as a tool to alleviate the arbitrary development of New Urban Land Expansion in Egypt. Also, it explores Participatory and Inclusive Land Readjustment (PILaR) as a mechanism to shorten the gap between the current Egyptian planning policy with its regulations and requirements and the existing reality of people’s needs and demands. Draw from a case study in Benha city, this article assumes that PILaR can be formulated and implemented on the ground with ‘technical enablement.’ The gap between the government policy and the capacity of the community should be narrowed to identify what is of critical importance and what is required for people concerned. The government should adopt PILaR and act as an agent for the avail of local citizens and for the compatibility and sustainability of rescuing agricultural lands and encourage the urban development in the back desert of Egypt.

The question of urban informality today concerns the majority of the inhabitants and policy makers of regional metropolises and secondary cities. The first aim of this article is to show that there are diverse mechanisms behind the complexity of urban housing informality in Egyptian cities. It explores the process of an Action Plan and it improves the understanding of the implementation process within informal housing areas. Secondly, it shows how the conditions of informal housing can be formulated at the local level with 'technical enablement', enabling governance of informal housing that facilitates cooperation among various actors. Understanding the built environment of informal housing developments would enable state and housing professionals to accumulate, eliminate, and integrate informal housing areas within formal planning zones, and the value of informal properties should be harnessed to promote development and alleviate poverty. It concludes that the role of the government should be changed fro...