Assessment of urban growth of Jeddah: towards a liveable urban management

ABSTRACT In Saudi Arabia, an array of diverse strategies has been applied in response to the adverse effects of urban sprawl. A review of the historical proliferation of these strategies indicates that although in the short term the strategies have achieved high-quality infrastructure in some parts of the major cities, longer-term prospects are less promising since numerous urban problems persist in these cities. Among these problems are uncontrolled developments in the fringes, inadequate urban services, spiralling land prices and construction costs, the proliferation of slums and degrading quality of the urban environment. This research focuses on urban growth management as an approach for sustainable communities. The study will then discuss urban growth management as a discipline that can empower Jeddah as one of the fastest Saudi major cities to generate better urban development strategies and policies for a new generation of communities. This research paper explores ways to manage Jeddah’s urban growth and new development. The objective is to generate new communities that offer higher standards of living while meeting the challenge inside the existing urban mass by providing the much-needed new policies to limit and control urban growth. It is, therefore, an absolute must begin revising our urban growth and spatial development policies and plans. New theories of urban growth, development and management must be carefully examined and studied, and solutions must be devised, sooner than later, to help promote achieving sustainable urban management in Saudi Arabia.