Nermin Dessouky

• Ph.D. in Urban Geography - MSc in Sustainable Development - B.Sc. in Architecture
• UN Habitat

The increased involvement of the private sector in building sustainable communities is often met with skepticism from sustainability experts and academics. Although environmental experts and engineers may wish to focus on the technical design features and green rating of such projects to validate their sustainability, data are sometimes lacking, an...

Purpose Existing Neighborhood Sustainability Assessment (NSA) tools such as “Leadership for Energy and Environmental Design - Neighborhood Development” (LEED-ND) and “Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method” (BREEAM Communities) are widely criticized for a lack of transparency in the selection of indicators and an unbalanced...

Shared micromobility services that offer bikes and scooters on demand are complementing walking, cycling, and public transport to expand the role of active mobility in urban transportation. However, on-demand services are often introduced at a faster pace than streets are redesigned to protect the safety of users. The lack of safe street infrastruc...

The recent diffusion of urban sustainability concepts has led new developer-driven master-planned models of sustainable neighborhoods to emerge around the world. These communities no longer aim at early adopters but seek to mainstream sustainability in the residential market. The popular press has been influential in portraying this model to the pu...

Residential energy retrofits have the potential to generate significant non-energy impacts (NEIs) on occupants, but the understanding of those NEIs has been hampered by the lack of a shared approach to studying them. A detailed literature review revealed several common tendencies that limit the generalizability of findings, including a focus on ben...

Ratepayer-funded programs spend millions of dollars on home energy retrofits each year in the United States. Measuring the impacts of such retrofits is critically important to determining whether the benefits justify the costs, and if the program should be expanded, shuttered, or adjusted. Current efforts to measure the impacts of energy retrofits-...

In Dubai, a private developer conceived, built, and now manages , a gated community called "The Sustainable City" (TSC), with more than 2,000 residents, shops, a school, and a hotel. TSC was purpose-built to consume almost no energy and be especially frugal with water, harnessing cutting-edge technologies and green building practices to promise res...

Summary of project findings and recommendations

In residential communities designed for energy efficiency, do the occupants take an active role in conserving energy, or leave it up to the home itself? We examined cooling practices in a new, low-energy development, located in one of the hottest climates in the world. The Sustainable City (TSC) in Dubai attracts individuals from across the globe,...

Sustainability has become a primary concern of new communities worldwide. With regard to planned communities specifically, sustainability planning has taken into account technical environmental standards as well as economic and technological factors. However, planned communities must consider social factors, or their “culture of sustainability” if...

Architects and urban planners must be aware of the impact of their contribution to both the society and the environment, this awareness needs to be planted in their educational programs. This paper is trying to determine the social and environmental priorities in architecture and urban undergraduate programs. After discussing the trends of curricul...