For the last 20 years, the Yemeni government has been providing housing schemes for low‐income groups. These low‐income housing schemes have not, however, been evaluated. Based on a post‐occupancy evaluation of three low‐income public housing schemes in Sana’a, Yemen, the paper describes the residents’ judgement and assessment of the environment in which they are living. Interviews with 180 occupants revealed that they attach great importance to the level of satisfaction with their neighbourhoods. The most important factor associated with neighbourhood satisfaction was privacy, a reflection of the cultural background in Yemeni society.

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Riyadh is one of the major capital cities of the world, its urban fabric has been affected by rapid urbanization and population growth. Enormous urban expansion has had negative effects on the human dimension, as the streets became more devoted to transportation rather than an integrated urban space. The local municipalities in Riyadh have exerted efforts to restore the human dimension to streets by developing urban spaces and built environments. However, these efforts did not provide a strategy for creating livable streets, because they were built based on individual initiatives. This work aims to investigate the physical aspects of Riyadh streetscapes and define their influences on the livability and quality of spaces. This paper provides a descriptive analysis of two streets in Riyadh, Tahlia Street and Tabuk Street, which have been developed to make them pedestrian friendly. The research data were obtained through field surveys, interviews, and observations. Moreover, in-depth analyses of several government reports from The Royal Commission for Riyadh City and the Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs were conducted. Results show that Tahlia Street has wide physical aspects compared to Tabuk Street, making the former more vital than the latter. However, both streets lack some street infrastructure to protect pedestrians from weather conditions. Finally, the paper proposes to develop the current conditions of the physical characteristics of street scenes in order to improve the quality of the streets in Riyadh and enhance the residents' quality of life.

Evaluating housing projects is an essential task to determine the effectiveness of these projects and to provide a useful feedback to the projects’ initiators ‐ be it the public or the private sector. The evaluation could be on a number of different bases. Reports the results of research work aiming to compare the quality and effectiveness of three housing projects initiated by the Yemeni government in the capital ‐ Sana’a. The basis chosen for evaluating the public low‐income housing schemes is the housing quality measurement technique. This technique is used for measuring quality under widely different housing standards. It is a way of assessing the environmental quality and hence evaluating the success or failure of a particular housing project. Satisfaction of residents has also been evaluated and reported in an earlier paper (Al‐Abed and Mustapha, 1996).

Many rehabilitation projects of heritage areas in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia suffer from the absence of an active role in community participation, which negatively affects the long-term sustainability of these projects. Heritage areas represent one of the tourism resources that the Kingdom's Vision 2030 focused on, as it called for their urban rehabilitation and linking them to the urban context, which contributes to strengthening the economy and supporting the local community. Community participation is one of the important factors to ensure the success of urban rehabilitation projects for heritage areas. Therefore, this paper aims to extrapolate the role of the local community in urban rehabilitation projects for heritage areas by applying it to a case study of Rijal Almaa heritage village in the Asir region. The paper adopted the descriptive and theoretical approach to analyzing the stages of community participation based on a review of experiments and theoretical frameworks. The study applied a case study model, and questionnaire tools were used for a sample of (23) people from the region's population. The study also used observation tools, field visits, and interviews (3) experts from the village's residents to analyze the role of local community participation in the urban rehabilitation process and the optimal path to support the participation process. The paper concluded that there is a tangible role for community participation in the urban rehabilitation of Rijal Alma Heritage Village. Its impact varies according to three stages: planning, implementation, and evaluation. Finally, the study emphasized the need to develop a framework that enhances the process of community participation as part of the urban rehabilitation processes for heritage areas in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.