Industrial development effects on ecological sustainability in developing countries

Most of the developing countries look forward to achieve economical advancing. Therefore these countries aimed to reinforce their industrial bases and develop the different branches of industrial production as a tool to support the economic development and increase the national income; in order to modernize their urban life style and upgrade the physical and social conditions. On the other hand, the developing countries - including Egypt - aimed to transfer readily from the agricultural economy towards industrial economy as a way to create new investment chances and to open new industrial labors. In the sequence of these urgent orientations towards fast industrialization, most of the developing countries ignored many of serious requirements such as: the opportunity of industrial types and the adopted technology, the special distribution of industrial enterprises over the regions and its relevant impacts on the natural resources and ecosystems, the integration between physical, economical, and environmental planning, and also, the international effects that generated as a result of transferring the environmental cost from the developed industrialized nations to Third World. Even, this paper aims to establish a balanced framework for the industrial development in developing countries, taking into account the basic environmental considerations and sustaining possibilities of the ecosystems within urban regions of such countries. The three main topics in this paper are: first, the environmental resources and ecological sustainability, that presents the nature of environmental resources, the ecological footprints of industrial cities, and the need of urban sustainable development. Second, industrial development challenges, which discuss the industrial development within the sustainability context, also the environmental challenges of industrial development in Third World countries are outlined. Third, the environmental policies for achieving the ecological sustainability, that briefly discusses the new role of planning, the institutional framework, the various roles of both central and local governments, and the responsibilities of industrial sector.