The development of a consensus-based framework for a sustainable urban planning of the city of Riyadh

In the last few decades, there has been an increasing interest in the field of sustainable urban planning and it is in constant evolution across the world. Cities in developing countries, including the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, are experiencing rapid and in many cases unsustainable growth. Since its establishment seventy years ago the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has been transformed into a modern, developing country. This transformation has placed a great deal of pressure on many of the available resources, including oil and natural gas, and has introduced a number of serious issues, such as environmental degradation. Therefore, sustainable urban planning has emerged as a pressing concern that must be addressed by both governments and nongovernment authorities. The overall aim of this thesis is to assess the urban planning of the city of Riyadh, in terms of sustainability, and to develop a comprehensive consensus-based framework for the sustainable urban planning of Riyadh. The research is carried out to answer the following main question: can the urban planning of the city of Riyadh be managed sustainably through an adapted sustainable urban planning framework? The research highlights the significance of sustainable urban planning for cities and gives an inclusive review of important issues in terms of underpinning concepts, principles and challenges. The research aims to critically evaluate the most common and established frameworks of sustainable cities. The thesis provides a review of the existing urban fabric of the city of Riyadh and critically discusses its urban planning phases during the last few decades. This critical review is based on a proposed framework of sustainable urban planning. The proposed framework is evaluated based on the opinion of 35 experts, familiar with the local context of the city, through the use of the Delphi technique and the application of the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). Through the testing process of the proposed framework in different parts of the City of Riyadh, the results have proven the hypothesis of the research, which indicates that a comprehensive consensus-based framework for sustainable urban planning, supported by understanding the key issues of sustainability and supported by clear and comprehensive guidelines, can benefit and manage the urban planning for the City of Riyadh sustainably.