Several African and Asian countries have embarked on building new towns to address urbanization challenges such as crowded cities, slums, and pressure on existing infrastructure. These projects have been criticized for being inadequate in fostering environmental sustainability. Based on a desk study, this article reviews the environmental sustainability challenges of these projects and recommends some ecologically embedded practices of traditional settlements that wonderfully survived for many centuries with little adverse social and environmental impacts yet offered opportunities for urbanism. The article discusses how the architecture, urban form, and green infrastructure of traditional settlements present excellent cases of ecological wisdom and embeddedness where the local ecosystems are respected, and every human activity, including the creation of the built environment, is defined by the ecological allowances, where resilience is part of the built environment at both micro and macro scales, and where humanity and nature are equal stakeholders living in unison. The article concludes that these instances of successful ecological embeddedness in traditional settlements can provide lessons for contemporary cities to ponder when envisioning more sustainable built environments for the present and future generations.

No abstract

Saudi government took the initiative and declared formation of municipal councils. This act allows Saudi elected members to participate in issues concerning city development and thus lessening some of the problems facing the local society. This research aims to explore opinions regarding the introduction of public participation practice in the urban planning process in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). Dammam Metropolitan Area (DMA) is taken as a case study. The paper investigates the opinions of the professionals, officials and experts at DMA. Emphasis is on the method and means of participation, and who should participate. The paper starts with an introduction, followed with a review of literature with emphasis on the processes of urban plan development and public participation. Then, data collection methods and analysis are discussed. Finally, the study ends with discussion and recommendations. The results show that public participation is one of the core principles of preparing urban plans. It shows that the professionals, officials and experts of Dammam Metropolitan Area (DMA) have positive attitudes toward public participation in urban planning. They support participation in urban planning and by particularly giving equal chance to "Men & Women" to participate in decision making.

This study aims to review the off-plan sales program to identify the financial and marketing challenges being faced by such programs in Saudi Arabia and formulate consensus-based measures to overcome these challenges. The study implies an analytical descriptive method to achieve its objectives, based on the opinion of experts involved in the off-plan sales program and analyzing the data using the Delphi technique. Various statistical parameters were calculated to validate the obtained results. The study found several challenges being faced by off-plan sales programs, including financing challenges such as mortgaging on the land deed, as well as marketing challenges, including low turnout of the buyers due to the long duration of project implementation. The study concludes with several suggested measures, the most important of which is to find an alternative to the condition of mortgaging the land deed, such as putting insurance on the project or providing a financial bank guarantee. The study contributes to the improvement of the real estate sector of Saudi Arabia and would benefit the construction and development sectors as well.

There is a growing concern for people to contribute to future developments in shaping their surroundings (town, community, and region) and, thus, their quality of life. Therefore, the study aims to propose a framework of public-participation exploitation for sustainable urban planning in Saudi Arabia. The framework proposed was developed based on analyzing the literature review and experts’ opinions through the Delphi technique. The framework covers planning levels and stages, participation methods, sustainability pillars, and the use of information communication technology (ICT). A proposed PP framework is produced, which is comprehensive, yet tailored for the urban-planning context of Saudi Arabia. The framework assists the management of PP properly. It addresses several practical elements that involve the citizens’ awareness regarding PP in the planning process, along with the accessibility of the populace to urban-planning issues. The framework shows that there is no single participatory technique that can satisfy all planning processes. The framework recognizes the importance of integrating sustainability into urban plans. It is concluded that the current framework helps to manage public participation properly and introduces the participants in the planning process, which eventually affects the urban planning of cities in Saudi Arabia.