Recent Approaches of Sustainable Architecture in Arid and Semi-arid Cities Best Practices for Materials, Water, Energy and Urban Greening in Challenging Climates

Dr. Zeina ElZein is an Associate Professor in Architecture and Urban Design, specialized in sustainable urban development, integrated urban water management, and the water-energy-food nexus at Helwan University. She is a former visiting researcher at Humboldt University in Berlin, Germany, and a Fulbright alumna at the University of Texas at Austin, USA. She served as an editor and consultant for local and international organizations and journals and participated as a jury member and reviewer for international funds and scientific journals and conferences. ElZein is currently assigned as member of the UN-Habitat Youth Advisory Board and was a member of the World Urban Forum 12 Advisory Group. She was awarded the Volkswagen Foundation Award and the 10th IALE World Congress Award. She studied integrated urban water management and water governance in her PhD. She provided strategies and policies that can be implemented in Egypt to allow transformation into an integrated urban water management approach. She participated in establishing a new undergraduate program: Sustainable Architecture and Urban Design, at the Faculty of Fine Arts, Helwan University. The program includes interdisciplinary courses to equip architects with the knowledge and experience to address global challenges and sustainable development goals. She, along with her team, was awarded the best integrated sustainable development scheme for an off-grid community in Egypt by the Center of Excellence for Water in Egypt. She developed, along with her team, an urban agriculture prototype addresses water and food security in urban areas. She is an editor of the book volume entitled “Integration of Core Sustainable Development Goals for Rural Areas: Current Best Practices of Water, Energy, Food, Climate Change and Ecosystems”, published by Springer. 

Dr. Abdelazim Negm research interest focuses on sustainability in the field of environmental engineering. Currently, he  is an emeritus professor of hydraulics but recently shifted his interest to water resources management and their sustainability and then to the wider field of environmental engineering at the Faculty of Engineering, Zagazig University, Egypt, since 2004. He got his Ph.D. in 1992 from Zagazig University (ZU), and his M.Sc. from Ain Shams University in the year 1990. He was the Vice Dean of the Faculty of Engineering of ZU from 12/2008 to 12/2011 and was the head of the Environmental Engineering Department at Egypt-Japan University of Science and Technology (E-JUST), Egypt, from October 2013 to March 2016. He participated in several international projects from 2006 until now and led other international projects. He published more than 400 papers in national and international journals and conferences and contributed to more than 50 book chapters that have been published by Springer Publishing House. Some of his papers were awarded the prize of the best papers. He is the editor of more than 35 Springer books with 12 volumes published in the Springer Handbook of Environmental Chemistry Series (HEC Series). He is a member of the scientific committee of several international conferences and a member of organizing committee of others and participated in more than 90 conferences as well. He delivered several keynote talks at international conferences. Prof. Negm is a reviewer of more than 50 international scientific journals indexed in Scopus and WoS. He was the editor-in-chief of EIJEST during the period of 2017 -2020, an editor of the EMJEI, which is published by Springer, and an associate editor of the Journal of Remote Sensing and Space Sciences and Scientific African Journal, which is published by Elsevier. Moreover, he is leading (or contributor) of  several journal special issues in Springer Nature, Frontiers and MDPI. Also, he is a member of the editorial board of several scientific journals. Moreover, he is a member of the editorial board of the famous Springer Series titled Handbook of Environmental Chemistry since 2019 and the head of the permanent scientific committee on Water Resources (committee no.115), the supreme council of Egyptian Universities, Egypt. Prof. Negm is listed in the most famous and prestigious directories in the world including the American Biographical Institute (ABI), Inc, USA, “Marquis Who's Who in the World,” 27th Ed., 2010, USA, until now and in IBC's 2000 as an Outstanding Intellectuals of the 21st Century by International Biographical Center, Cambridge, England, since 2011 until the present. He was nominated for various awards by both ABI and IBC during the period 2011-2012.