I am a political urban geographer working on topics related to political economy of urban development, sustainable cities, infrastructural politics and grassroots mobilisations. I am currently an assistant Professor of Climate, Environment and Urban Policy at the Department of Land Economy, Cambridge. I am also a fellow with the Governance and Local Development Institute at the University of Gothenburg (Sweden), and an international fellow at the Young Academy for Sustainability at the University of Freiburg (Germany). I am trained in urban studies, public administration and policy, geography, and political economy approaches, and the use of qualitative methodologies, and policy analysis. 

My research interests lie at the centrefold of political economy, sustainability policy, and urban studies, with a focus on building an interdisciplinary approach to structural inequality, urban governance and grassroots mobilisation. Recent research work focuses on the governance of socio-technical systems, the role of religious actors in Middle East and Latin American urban planning, and global infrastructural megaprojects.

I won multiple grants from the University of Bath, Urban Studies Foundation, University of Sheffield, the University of Gothenburg’s Governance and Local Development Institute, UC Santa Barbara, Freiburg University, among others.

My research focuses on the politics of urban infrastructure, urban political ecology and global environmental policy, specifically urban water governance. I have published on the political economy of urban development, global cities, global environmental grassroots movements, resilience policies, hybrid water systems in Bangladesh, Brazil and Egypt, the. political dimensions of water security, urban informality and water shortages in Egypt, smart city development in the UK, and Chinese investments in urban development in Egypt. 

I won several research awards and grants including from the University of Bath (UK) to gather empirical data on structural urban violence, the Urban Studies Foundation (UK) funded questions on the role of religion in urban planning in Latin American and MENA cities, the University of Exeter (UK) and the University of California Santa Barbara (USA) have funded different research streams of Chinese investment in construction, Oxford University’s African Initiative (UK) funded research on the role of communities in heritage preservation, the University of Gothenburg’s Governance and Local Development Institute to research water tarriffs; and funding from the Urban Institute at the University of Sheffield (UK) funds my interest in the role of southern-led megaprojects in urban areas connecting with case studies from Africa, the Mediterranean and South Asia.

Also, I am currently an international fellow with the University of Freiburg’s Young Academy for Sustainable research to expand my research on equitable sustainable transitions in the renewable energy and water sectors across MENA cities.

Peer-Reviewed

Wahby, N. 2022. (2022). Selective Crisis: Water Shortages in Cairo’s Elite and Informal Areas. Arab Studies Journal, 30(2), 82-88. https://www.arabstudiesjournal.org/302-fall-2022.html 

Cawood, S.; Wahby N. & Ferrara, L.N. (2022). Hybridity in practice: Responding to water insecurity in São Paulo, Dhaka and Cairo. Water Alternatives, 15(3), 688-708. https://www.water-alternatives.org/index.php/alldoc/articles/vol15/v15issue3/679-a15-3-8/file  

Apostolopoulou, E., Bormpoudakis, D., Chatzipavlidis, A., Cortés Vázquez, J., Florea, I., Gearey, M., Levy, J., Loginova, J., Ordner, J., Partridge, T., Pizarro, A., Rhoades, H., Symons, K., Veríssimo, C., Wahby, N. (2022). Radical social innovations and the spatialities of grassroots activism: navigating pathways for tackling inequality and reinventing the commons. Journal of Political Ecology, 29(1), 144–188. https://doi.org/10.2458/jpe.2292

Dasgupta, S., & Wahby, N. (2021). Beyond a standardised urban lexicon: which vocabulary matters? International Development Planning Review, 43(4), 419–434. https://doi.org/10.3828/idpr.2021.10

Wahby, N. (2021). Urban informality and the state: Repairing Cairo’s waters through Gehood Zateya. Environment and Planning E: Nature and Space, 4(3), 696-717. https://doi.org/10.1177/25148486211025262

Empinotti, V.L., Budds, J., Jepson, W., Millington, N., Ferrara, L.N, Gerree, J., Grandisoli, E., da Paz, M.G.A., Puga, B.P., Alves, E.M., Cawood, S., Jacobi, P.R., Kinjo, V.U., Lampis, A., Moretti, R., Octavianti, T., Periotto, N. Quinn, R., Quintslr, S., Sulaiman, S., Vicente, P.A., & Wahby, N. (2021). Advancing urban water security: the urbanization of water-society relations and entry-points for political engagement. Water International, 46(6), 956-968. https://doi.org/10.1080/02508060.2021.1937901

Nochta, T., Wahby, N., & Schooling, J. M. (2021). Knowledge politics in the smart city: A case study of strategic urban planning in Cambridge, UK. Data & Policy, 3(31). https://doi.org/10.1017/dap.2021.28

Wahby, N (2017). Urbanity and Populism in the Global South - Lessons for the Brexit-Trump Era. City and Community, 16(2), 139-144. https://doi.org/10.1111/cico.12234

Book Chapters

Wahby, N. (2018). “Egyptian Environmentalism and Urban Grassroots Non-movements”, in Jose Vasquez and Elia Apostolopoulou (Eds.) The Right to Nature: Social Movements, Environmental Justice and Neoliberal Natures, Routledge-Earthscan, London, UK.

Book Reviews

Flow/Overflow/Shortage Research Collective, Sophia Abbas, Alex Baker, Suyash Barve, Moritz Kasper, Demetra Kourri, James Christopher Mizes, Andrea Pollio, Laura Silva, Roman Solé-Pomies et Noura Wahby, « Jonathan Silver, The Infrastructural South. Techno-Environments of the Third Wave of Urbanization », Métropoles [En ligne], 35 | 2024, mis en ligne le 01 février 2025, consulté le 13 mars 2025. URL : http://journals.openedition.org/metropoles/12236 ; DOI : https://doi.org/10.4000/13et8

FOS (Flow/ Overflow/ Shortage) Research Collective, Abbas, S., Baker, A., Barve, S., Kasper, M., Kourri, D., Mizes, J. C., Pollio, A., Silva, L., & Wahby, N. (2024). Review of “The Infrastructural South”, MIT Press, by Jon Silver, Trialog 148/149, 80, https://www.trialog-journal.de/en/journals/trialog-148-149-post-war-cities-planning-recovery-and-reconstruction/  

ElGhamrawi, S., & Wahby, N. (2023).  Review of “We Buy Everything: Housing and Urban Changes in Egypt”, Al-Maraya Press 2022, by Shawkat, Y et al., International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, https://doi.org/10.56949/1KUZ6870

Wahby, N (2020). Review of “The Lived Nile. Environment, disease, and material colonial economy in Egypt”, Stanford University Press 2019, by Jennifer L. Derr, Water Alternatives, http://www.water-alternatives.org/index.php/boh/item/126-nile

Public Outreach

Wahby, N. & Zhao, S. (2024). “The ‘Chinese Scare’: Marble and Granit Manufacturing Networks in Egypt”. Mapping Connections Project (funding Carnegie Corp NYC), https://www.china-mena-connections.org/blog/the-chinese-scare-marble-and-granite-manufacturing-networks-in-egypt

Wahby, N & Bou Akar, H. (2022). “The Urban Middle East: A conversation on Beirut and Knowledge Production with Hiba Bou Akar”, International Journal of Urban and Regional Research. https://www.ijurr.org/interviews/the-urban-middle-east-a-conversation-on-beirut-and-knowledge-production-with-hiba-bou-akar/

Wahby, N. (2020). “Gehood Zateya: Incremental Infrastructure from below”. Jadaliyya. https://www.jadaliyya.com/Details/41995

Wahby, N. (2015). “The Race to the Global City: Who Gets Left Behind?” Cambridge Review of International Affairs Views.  http://criaviews.org/the-race-to-the-global-city-who- gets-left-behind/

Policy Outputs 

Wahby, Sanghoon-Park, A, and Bhangaonkar, R. (2022). Shedding Light on Resilience Policy: Case Studies from Egypt, India, and the UK. GAPP Policy Brief Series: https://documents.aucegypt.edu/Docs/GAPP/GAPP%20Policy%20Brief%20Issue%2020.pdf 

Wahby, N. (2021). Environmentalism from Below: Local and Municipal Politics. In Arab Reform Initiative: “Environmental Politics in the Middle East and North Africa: Proceedings from First Inaugural Conference”. https://www.arab-reform.net/publication/environmental-politics-in-the-middle-east-and-north-africa-proceedings-from-first-inaugural-conference/ 

Accepted

Mason, M, Sharp, D, & Wahby, N. “Middle East Climate Urbanism”, in Aisha AlSarihi and Michael Mason (Eds.) The Politics and Policy of Climate Change in the Middle East, Bloomsbury I.B. Tauris, London, UK.

Wahby, N. & Zhao, S. “The Global Stone Industry: Following Chinese Small and Medium Enterprises in Egypt”.