Dr. Elrefaie is an associate professor of Urban Planning at the Faculty of Engineering, Ain Shams Uni. Cairo. Besides his academic works he is a senior policy advisor, in the Urban Development Cluster of the German International Cooperation-GIZ in Egypt, where he is responsible for the urban development and digitalization components in the cooperation with the Ministry of Housing and the Urban Development Fund - UDF.

Dr. Elrefaie has accumulated expertise in strategic and Environmental planning, landscape design, institutional development and geo-spatial Information management over a period of 30 years. He has been active in researching, and conducting training in these, directly related, topics to sustainable urban development such as applying participatory approaches and systems thinking tools to community development and poverty alleviation. Effective land management, encouraging decentralization and utilizing GIS on local levels were also on the top of the main focuses of his research and practical work.