Several international systems exist for measuring sustainability compliance such as BREEAM in the UK, LEED in the US and CASBEE in Japan. A recent Egyptian system is termed the Green Pyramid Rating system (GPRS), and is intended to operate as a rating and certification scheme to define and encourage ecological building design and development in Egypt. Both international and local systems are uncertain in terms of their suitability to local technologies and conditions and in terms of their economics. This paper aims to discuss sustainability system elements of existing buildings in rural areas in Egypt in terms of their suitability to local conditions and economics. Ecological design principles were extracted from international systems and model eco-houses. Challenges facing ecohouses in Egypt were reviewed. The ecological design principles were applied to a case study in Wardan, Egypt, where local available technologies were used to apply the principles of indoor environmental quality, energy efficiency, water management, ecomaterials. Ecological systems are proposed for natural ventilation, photovoltaic panels, and thermal insulation and their economic viability is compared to typical air conditioning systems. The conclusion of the comparison is that the proposed ecological renovations of the case study are competitive in terms of construction costs and more economical than typical systems considering life cycle costing. It is thus recommended that government agencies and industry institutions take on awareness campaigns and research institutes direct research towards appropriate ecological technologies for new and existing buildings, whether rural or urban.

Livability is one of the primary guiding principles for policy-making and urbanists, of which the evaluation and definition have become the crucial research topic of countering. The micro-scale living conditions necessitate more urgent attention as the progress in socio-economic development accelerates. However, few researchers have addressed the evaluation criteria of urban livability at spatial enclosure scales as community scale. Therefore, this paper aims to create an urban communitylevel balanced weight evaluation statistical system, as residential communities are one of the basic units of urban living places. Twenty-nine objective indicators are selected to establish the indicator system. Considering different age groups, a comprehensive evaluation framework for communities' livability combines objective indicators and subjective perceptions. Accordingly, this study is applied to assess the urban microscale livability of residential communities in Aswan City. There are significant results from the study. Different age groups have distinct demands for an urban community's livability. They have valued some indicators and concentrated on the following two dimensions: pedestrians' rights and convenience of transportation. Finally, the communities' livability shows a decreasing spatial pattern from the city center to the surroundings. These empirical findings may be helpful to urbanists and other parties as stakeholders for future development.