SRQL Index: An Assessment Tool to Promote Sustainability, Resilience, and Quality of Life in Informal Settlements in Egypt

This paper is part of a research project aiming at developing a smart decision support system (SDSS) to propose proper interventions for upgrading informal settlements in Egypt. The system depends on a multi-criteria assessment tool, namely the SRQL Index, developed to promote sustainability, resilience, and quality of life. The scope of this paper is limited to developing SRQL. A critical review of national and international resources has been conducted to derive 1645 indicators that promote SRQL in informal settlements. These indicators were filtered into 89 relevant indicators, and then were categorized into 4 domains, 10 dimensions, and 27 key-indicators. Using the analytic hierarchy process (AHP), domains, dimensions, key-indicators, and indicators were assigned relative weights, depending on the input of two-round focus group sessions. Representatives of various backgrounds, e.g., academics, planners, local administration, and NGOs, participated in determining the relative weights of domains, dimensions, key-indicators, and indicators, respectively. Focus group sessions revealed that the socio-economic domain has the highest relative weight (43.94%), urban governance (25.11%), the environment (18.26%), and then urban aspects (12.69%). The top relative weight indicators are ‘income/capita’ (5.09%), and ‘population in hazard locations’ (4.69%), while the lowest relative weight indicators are ‘building heights’, ‘plot area’, and ‘vacant lands’ (0.04%).