Urban environmental issues in the metropolitan area of Sfax City, Tunisia: could an integrated management solve the problem?

The major challenge facing Sfax, the second-largest city in Tunisia, is how to shift successfully and smoothly toward green and innovative sustainable development. Indeed, Sfax is traumatized by more than a half-century of irrelevant environmental choices and, at the same time, it aspires to take advantage of the national circumstances in multiple transitions, driven by a real desire to get rid of a stressful environmental heritage. Therefore, its struggle with the transition to an efficient and ecofriendly economy will not be simple. Within this context, a group of researchers from various scientific backgrounds from Sfax University have joined their efforts and went through more than 270 previously published documents over the past three decades aiming to revive the concept of environmental integration in Sfax. These scholars, although belonging to different scientific fields, succeeded in synthesizing the latest scientific works related to the region dealing with local environmental components and threats, water resources, wastewater handling, solid waste management, urban development, and infrastructure. An outcome on the current status of this modern traumatized city and an assessment of several local technological advances of the region, as well as a thorough investigation of the various dedicated reconciliation plans were drawn. Further, it was possible to sketch a double entry matrix showing the various affected zones and potential environmental risks that should be considered. Scores were assigned to the affected zones to assess the incurred danger and propose possible remedies. This paper provides a holistic view of the complex environmental systems in Sfax, and demonstrates how efforts of local, regional, and national authorities can address the environmental challenges. This review is intended to fairly highlight the environmental problems in the city, with the ultimate goal of encouraging the re-conversion of the city into a competitive and sustainable Mediterranean metropolis city, in accordance with the Barcelona Convention.