Strategic Principles to Promote the Concept of Sustainable Cities in Saudi Arabia

Conference Paper

2025

This paper highlights the analysis of theoretical concepts of sustainable cities and ethical frameworks in the context of the economic transformations taking place in Saudi cities. The research seeks to propose strategic principles to enhance the concept of sustainable cities that are compatible with the duality of development and resource conservation, and in light of a research problem, which is the dominance of the philosophy of physical planning, which translates the traditional ideas of technocratic planners towards a tendency towards economic investment at the expense of social development and environmental preservation. This paper relied on the theoretical and inductive approach by analyzing a wide range of studies that addressed the concept of sustainable cities with survey tools to extrapolate a sample of 47 experts and academics. The study concluded with six strategic principles to enhance the sustainability of Saudi cities: sustainable urban legislation, green areas, transportation alternatives, effective municipal administration, economic opportunities, and renewable energy resources.