Urban Planning of Saudi Arabia: A Detailed Analysis

This report examines the urban planning of Saudi Arabia, a nation experiencing rapid transformation from a nomadic society to a highly urbanized one. The study explores the integration of national, regional, and local planning, highlighting the role of the Saudi Urban Forum in addressing urban development challenges. The report analyzes the impact of land subdivision on urban growth, particularly focusing on cities like Riyadh, Madinah, and others. The study investigates the consequences of land subdivision, including loss of agricultural land, disruptions to city planning, and the impact on public services and land regulations. The conclusion emphasizes the importance of balanced planning and the need for sustainable urban development to overcome the negative impacts of land subdivision.

Running head: URBAN PLANNING OF SAUDI ARABIA
Urban Planning of Saudi Arabia
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Introduction:
One of the most rapidly growing countries of the world in terms of its urban planning is
that of Saudi Arabia. The nation has experienced a huge transformation from being a rustic and
nomadic civilization to one of the most urbanized society. The current planning of Saudi Arabia
involves not only its urban growth but also the growth in terms of economy, regional level and
spatial. The following paper aims to talk about the integration of the planning at national,
regional as well as local level and what implications does the land subdivision activity have on
the urban growth of Saudi Arabia.
Discussion:
Accordig to Rizzo (2014), Saudi Arabia has moved beyond development in the petrol,
and faced a rapid change in its space and province, due to the urbanization. The integration and
planning at the national, regional and local level had been possible with the Saudi Urban Forum,
which had been organized in the year 2016 (AlQahtany, Rezgui and Li 2014). According to the
Deputy Minister of Town Planning of Saudi Arabia, the Saudi Urban Forum has been organized
in the face of the rising global and regional urban development challenges. The Forum is being
organized in the face of rising local and global urban growth challenges, Also as per the
discussion of Aina et.al. (2019), in the middle of related social services and infrastructure
development constraints there has been a need for more employment opportunities, affordable
housing and facilities for the recreational purposes.
Since there had been a change in the economy, the development in the economical
aspects and the growth in the population is in demand of greater land. In this context, as per the

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discussion of Aldalbahi and Walker (2015), there has been an intervention of the international
challenges and the attainment of the Sustainable Goals of the other nations leave an imprint upon
the need for a national development of Saudi Arabia. The Saudi Arabian government is quite
aware of the growing challenges and in order to keep its pace, the government has launched a
program in the year 2015, which is named Future Saudi Cities Programme (Rizzo 2014). This
program is in partnership with the UN habitat and together they aim to make a review of the
spatial policies of the nation. These policies would include the regional planning of Saudi
Arabia, the National Spatial Strategy as well as the national urban policies.
The National Spatial Strategy is a spatial plan for the entire nation which is focused on
several aspects of the kingdom. These include capitalizing on provincial economic potential in
supporting economic growth while reducing regional disparities and promoting regional
planning's role (Huggins et al. 2014). A further important legislative agenda was the
implementation of the technology networks strategy for better communication. Keeping in mind
the current situation and scenario, there had been development in the regional planning for the
local areas as well. Almahasheer (2018) discusses that the cities such as Riyadh, Eastern
Province, Madinah, Qassim and Mekkah in Saudi Arabia experienced a lot of development and
growth regarding the urban areas, the economy, the revenue and the public sector. Arriyadh is
now one of the leading political and financial hub of the nation, which experiences a spatial
development along with higher rates of economic and commercial growth. Also there have been
development programs for the villages and the cities with proper and comprehensive
development plans on behalf of the Saudi Arabian government (AlQahtany, Rezgui and Li
2014).

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In accordance to this, one of the main procedures by which there is a conversion of the
rural lands into the urban spaces is the land subdivision. There had been a segmentation of the
land with diminutive correlation with some rate of economic growth or occupancy. In the
modern times these segregation of the lands have had immense amount of influence on the
development of the urban areas and this has in turn led the government to intervene into the
matters of the development of the land (El Mallakh 2015). This had also resulted in the vacancy
and abandonment of the huge proportion of the remaining subdivided areas or lands. One such
city of Saudi Arabia, Madina faced significant consequences because the subdivision of land
there had been atypical and much different from the other cities of the nation. One of the main
issues that the subdivision of the land gave rise to was the loss of the agricultural land. Also there
had been an effect over the city planning as well. If a land is scattered and disintegrated, it is
difficult for the government to make a master plan of the city. According to the discussion of
McArthur and McCord (2017), this had been the case of Madina in Saudi Arabia. Also there had
been problems in the local areas, where there had been independent planning on the part of the
land owners. The subdivision of lands gave rise to the disruption of the city planning to a great
extent. even if there had been an increase in the rate of construction, it would affect the city
otherwise. The water system and the city wide plan had been disrupted. As a result there had
been an impact over the public service sector along with the land policies and regulations.
Conclusion:
Thus from the above discussion it can be concluded that the urbanization of the lands
from the regional level to the national level had been one of the greatest developments in the
current planning of Saudi Arabia. The Saudi Urban Forum had been one such program on behalf

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of the Government of the nation, which had aimed at the wholesome development of the selected
cities of the nation. However, the subdivision of the lands have had negative influence upon the
kingdom which resulted in huge abandonment and desertification of the lands, change in the
overall land regulation policies, and a disruption of the city planning.

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