Principles of Infill Development Policy towards Sustainable Urban Containment in Residential Areas

The Egyptian government has recently adopted a development of the National Urban policy (NUP) with the aim of increasing cities' ability in accommodating the growing population by making them more dense and compact. This comes through some policies and approaches which achieve the optimal use of different areas within cities to contain urban growth and its requirements. One of the most important of these policies (infill development policy) which exploit the land vacant, open areas and all possibilities, whether owned by the state or individuals to cover the development' needs. However, the application of this policy in cities faced a number of negative aspects such as the decreasing in the quality of life, reduction of open areas, selection of an inappropriate infill development' type and using unsuitable land plots for development process. Therefore, this paper aims to identify the necessary integrated principles for using infill development policy in developing residential areas and containing its urban requirements in sustainable way. To achieve this goal, the paper uses the descriptive analytical approach in reviewing the theoretical framework of infill development policy about its types and principles. In addition to testing the application of these principles in one selected area (Ezbet El Lemon) by using ArcGIS geographic information systems and statistical programs to find the degree of achievement urban containment through using infill policy and identify the main challenges which it faced. Also the paper polls the experts' opinions about the relative importance of infill' principles and how to face their challenges.