Journal of Sustainable Development; Vol. 9, No. 6; 2016 ISSN 1913-9063 E-ISSN 1913-9071 Published by Canadian Center of Science and Education 225 Rethinking Slums: An Approach for Slums Development towards Sustainability Ghada Mohammad Elrayies 1 1 Faculty of Engineering, Port Said University, Port Said, Egypt Correspondence: Ghada Mohammad Elrayies, Faculty of Engineering, Port Said University, Port Said 42526, Egypt. Tel: 2-066-344-6100. E-mails: ghadaelrayies@eng.psu.edu.eg; ghadaelrayies@ymail.com Received: October 8, 2016 Accepted: November 10, 2016 Online Published: November 30, 2016 doi:10.5539/jsd.v9n6p225 URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.5539/jsd.v9n6p225 Abstract Slums have become an unavoidable reality in many countries of the world, particularly the developing world. Although there are various slums upgrading models and approaches to address the urban poverty in developing countries, the number of slum dwellers has actually grown and the problem is expected to become worse. Other public policies have to eradicate slums and didn't take into account the resources and the potentials that slums offer. This refers to the need to change the procedures followed in the development processes. Along with the human-related problems associated with slums, slums cause serious impacts on the environment and natural resources. In this context, sustainable development is the main outlet to achieve a real boom of the developing world that consequently confirms the need to develop slums in an integrated manner. So, this paper adopts a concept of investing the positive aspects of the slums' community in conjunction with developing a thorough framework based on the three pillars of sustainability, economy, society, and environment. From this vein, the research is guided by a set of successful practices of many of developing countries through an approach grounded on the three pillars of sustainability. The objectives of this paper are; 1) shedding light on the positive human power of slum dwellers, 2) disseminating best practices on sustainable approaches, from which it can be developed and adapted to fit in the context of the urban slums of developing countries, and 3) providing a comprehensive framework for developing sustainable slums. Keywords: slums, sustainability, sustainable slums, successful practices 1. Introduction The world is experiencing the largest swell of urban growth in history. More than half of the world's population now lives in cities and towns, and by 2030 this number will increase to about 5 billion causing huge environmental, economic, and social transformations (UNFPA, 2007). Urbanization is accompanied by a number of challenges posed by the concentration of population in major cities; the environmental degradation that happened very quickly, resulting in a lack of basic needs, deterioration of water quality, air pollution, and the problems of solid waste disposal (Cronin, 2012). Among theses challenges are also the deficiencies in the provision and maintenance of housing and infrastructure. Furthermore, these involve the exposure to traffic hazards, lead, air pollution, and the amplification of heat waves of Urban Heat Island. As the reliance on fossil fuels, and the number of urban consumers and their materials needs increase, cities contribute to serious hazards on the biosphere including climate change (Agrawal, 2014). The rise in the number of urban dwellers has contributed in the slum growth. These slums are characterized by overcrowding, poor housing, low incomes, a lack of sanitation and safe water, and physical and legal insecurity (Cronin, 2012). The slums, due to the lack of the basic infrastructure, also resulting in severe impacts on the environment, damaging the natural resources and debilitating the regions where they are (Andrade, Aulicino, & Abiko, 2011). 2. Method Many of the measures taken to solve the slums' problems didn't pay attention to the resources offered by these slums, as well as many of the slums have showed challenges in dealing with it for many reasons, either the shortage of lands, the funding deficits, and/or the difficulty of infrastructure supply which lead to failure in the face of slums' intractable problems. Furthermore, many interventions that have been taken through a variety of slum upgrading actions omit the investigations of the long-term sustainability. So, accepting these informal areas and investing the positive aspects of its communities as well as adopting the sustainability approach including its