Global warming, rising temperatures, and sea-level rise pose growing challenges worldwide. Cities must address these risks while integrating climate considerations into long-term sustainable planning. The Urban Management Tools for Climate Change (UMTCC) short course shares practical knowledge on climate adaptation, resilience, and low-carbon development. Shahinaz and Ahmed joined this short course and are now applying what they learned to support climate action in their communities.
Meet Shahinaz
Shahinaz is an architect, urban designer, and teaching assistant at the Department of Architecture and City Planning at the Higher Institute for Engineering and Technology in Kafr El Sheikh (HIET). She also takes part in workshops and fellowships with Urban Research Labs in Egypt, where teams carry out small-scale community interventions such as upgrading buildings and public spaces and testing low-tech cooling solutions in dense Cairo neighbourhoods. Shahinaz joined the UMTCC course to strengthen her theoretical understanding and research tools on climate change and urban management.
Meet Ahmed
Ahmed is the co-founder of Tanmyaa, a newly established NGO in Egypt focusing on climate change and urban development through studies and small-scale interventions. The organisation collaborates with larger partners by contributing research and reports on environmental challenges. Ahmed is also working in ESU Lab, an educational research unit at Mansoura University focused on climate change and urban studies. As his work increasingly engages with coastal climate challenges and community-level interventions, he joined the course to dive deeper into these topics for the future development of his organisation.
Understanding climate change and gaining new tools
Ahmed explains that the IHS short course helped him develop a clearer understanding of climate change mitigation and adaptation, and how to translate these complex challenges into concrete analyses, case studies, and proposals. Learning alongside participants from diverse countries, as well as visiting Dutch water management projects, provided valuable insights that relate directly to the coastal and water-related challenges in his own city.
"Before the course, I could talk about climate change in general terms, but now I understand what climate change, mitigation and adaptation are, and how to translate these concepts into actions. This makes a big difference when conducting workshops or preparing proposals, because the approach becomes much more detailed than before." - says Ahmed.
Shahinaz mentions that the course provided practical tools to structure the analysis and planning of climate-related interventions. Methods such as vulnerability assessment, stakeholder analysis, and multi-criteria analysis help identify where to start and how to prioritise actions in urban environments. She finds stakeholder analysis especially valuable, as her work often involves participatory design processes that require identifying key actors and determining how to engage them across various urban challenges.
"Stakeholders are central to my work. Because we work with participatory design, bringing the right people together is essential. The stakeholder analysis tool has been invaluable in making this happen." - adds Shahinaz.
From application to impact
Ahmed plans to apply this knowledge directly in his work, using his stronger technical understanding to improve how his organisation conducts studies, prepares proposals, and communicates environmental challenges. The course has already shaped how he approaches workshops and project development, helping him present climate issues more clearly. He also shares these ideas through “Coffee X”, a weekly initiative that raises community awareness of climate risks.
Shahinaz will integrate what she learned into her work and share it with colleagues through a workshop on tools, cases, and approaches from the course. She also plans to share relevant lessons and Dutch examples with authorities through her work at the university, particularly on sea level rise and flooding in Egypt’s Delta. She emphasises the importance of including perspectives from across the country, as coastal areas face flooding while southern regions experience extreme heatwaves.
