The geoenvironmental risk assessment approach is one of the important approaches that provides new city planners with an important tool to cope with emerging environmental problems, such as pollution, epidemics, climate change, and flood. However, few scholars have explored the assessment of soil risk at the local level, which is common in new cities in Egypt. Ignoring the problematic soil in urban planning would present future risks for residents, undermine the effect of proposed land uses, and waste resources in plan implementation. To solve these problems, this paper carries out a risk assessment of problematic soil for the urban planning of New East Port Said City, aiming to ensure the efficiency of future land uses and the sustainability of similar new cities. The types of soil in the new city were summarized, which include soft clay soil, sabkha soil and sand dunes. With the aid of geographic information system (GIS) and remote sensing, the factors leading to the geological risk of each type of soil were detected separately. Besides, the vulnerability of proposed land uses was evaluated, and the geo-hazards of problematic soil were mapped comprehensively. On this basis, the land use plan was optimized for the new city according to the soil risks, and the land uses affected by soil risks. The research results shed new light on the application of environmental risk assessment in urban planning, and promote the risk mitigation, and sustainability of new cities.