Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Planning Arabic Towns

1986; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 76; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.2307/214622

1931-0846

Frank J. Costa, Allen G. Noble,

Socioeconomic Development in MENA

Urban form and settlement patterns have changed dramatically in Saudi Arabia as a result of increased wealth and a shift to an urban services-based economy. Traditional Saudi urban form reflected climatic and social-religious constraints. Recent developments have followed Western urban forms that largely ignore tradition. The gemeinschaft-gesellschaft model is proposed as an approach to unite traditional and recent urban forms into a coherent physical settlement. T RBANIZATION and economic development are closely related phenomena. As a society changes from rural to urban, its economic structure necessarily is altered. Primary and kinship relationships characterize a rural society, but secondary and instrumental ones distinguish urban society. Saudi Arabia in recent years has evolved rapidly from a traditional pastoral society to a highly urbanized, modernizing one. Wealth from oil exploitation was a principal impetus for this shift. Economic planning at the countrywide level began with a series of multiyear plans, the first of which was for 1970-75. Subsequent ones were for 1975-80, 1980-85, and 1985-90. In this article we assess the economic transformation that has occurred in Saudi Arabia since 1970 and the effects of the changes on physical development and environment. The last portion of the article contains a model for reconciling physical and environmental constraints with the pressures of rapid growth and increased development. Between 1970 and 1975 Saudi Arabia emerged from economic undevelopment, although the important achievements of the period were chiefly showcase types of projects. They included construction of the Jizan Dam in the southwestern province of Asir, the completion of which marked the start of permanent water impoundment in the kingdom, the new airport at Jidda, and erection of primary and secondary schools as the foundation for comprehensive education. Coordinated countrywide planning and development began with the initiation of the second five-year plan for 1975-80. Seven chief goals marked the investment policies of the planners. These goals were (1) to maintain the religious and moral values of Islam, (2) to assure the defense and internal security of the country, (3) to foster a high rate of economic growth by developing resources, maximizing earnings from oil over the long term, and conserving depletable resources, (4) to reduce dependence on export of crude oil, (5) to develop human resources through education, professional training, and improved health standards, (6) to increase the well-being of the population and to foster social stability in the face of rapid societal change, and (7) to install an infrastructure to support and achieve the first six goals.' 1 Francis Tibbalds, Planning in Saudi Arabia, RIBA Journal 85 (May 1978): 165. * DR. COSTA is a professor of urban studies and geography and DR. NOBLE is a professor of geography at the University of Akron, Akron, Ohio 44325. This content downloaded from 157.55.39.112 on Wed, 07 Sep 2016 04:36:49 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms PLANNING ARABIC TOWNS 161 Investments were made in many sectors, but especially in the communications infrastructure. For example, four seaports were constructed, including the huge port at Dammam that opened in 1979. The system of hardsurfaced roads was created during this period: approximately 15,000 miles of paved roads were built, augmenting all-weather roads, to link all large and middle-sized urban centers in the country. The magnitude of the project is suggested by the fact that the country had no paved roads in the mid1950s. By 1980 the paved-highway network not only linked the principal cities but also connected with the earthen-surfaced roads that served the almost 7,000 villages in Saudi Arabia.2 Air transportation is particularly important in a vast country like Saudi Arabia. Hence investment in air transportation had a high priority in this planning period. International airports were built at Riyadh, Jidda, and Dammam, and twenty-two domestic ones were constructed or improved to create a dense network of air transportation for the country. A second principal investment priority for this period was creation of two industrial centers: Jubail on the eastern coast and Yanbu on the western coast. Together these two projects represented the largest single investments undertaken by the Saudi government, or, for that matter, in the entire world. Lying approximately 325 miles northeast of Riyadh and 100 miles north of Dhahran, Jubail will eventually encompass an area as large as Greater London with a population of 350,000. Currently an oil refinery, a petrochemical plant, an industrial-chemical plant, and an iron and steel complex as well as a fertilizer-pellet plant are under construction at Jubail. The cost for Jubail may exceed US$60 billion.3 Central to the industrial base of Jubail as well as Yanbu is the installation of the Master Gas System (MGS), in which formerly burned gas will be used as a fuel for industries. The 1975-80 and 1980-85 plans had the character of massive national investment activities. Approximately US$250 billion were spent on various elements of the two plans during the ten-year period. The total represents a per capita investment of almost US$35,000, a truly impressive figure. Qualitative improvements in the living standards of Saudi citizens were significant. Approximately 500,000 new dwelling units were completed between 1975 and 1985. Educational and health facilities are widely available throughout the kingdom. The highway system is one of the best in the world. In short, the Saudi people have shifted from a subsistent agricultural pastoral economy to an advanced-service one in two or three decades. A slowing of pace has been evident in the Saudi developmental process since 1982. The worldwide oil glut has had tremendous effects on revenues, so that the objectives of both the 1980-85 and 1985-90 plans were revised downward. Nevertheless, on-going projects like Jubail and Yanbu will be 2 John Lawton, Foundations: A Decade of Development, Aramco World Magazine 33 (NovemberDecember 1982): 8-10. 3The Energy Upheaval, New York Times, 5 October 1983. This content downloaded from 157.55.39.112 on Wed, 07 Sep 2016 04:36:49 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 162 THE GEOGRAPHICAL REVIEW completed. Saudi Arabia must move rapidly to meet a crucial developmental goal of lessened dependence on oil resources. Rapid growth created serious environmental and societal problems. The remainder of this article is devoted to one of them: urban development and a possible planning response. THE EASTERN PROVINCE The Eastern Province developed more rapidly than the rest of Saudi Arabia. Villages became large cities in the span of a generation, and entirely new cities were established. The general population is being urbanized. A completely new environment is in creation. The shifts offer opportunities to meet the educational, health, and housing needs of the inhabitants, but it also poses problems, especially cultural adjustment and environmental or ecological degradation. The issue of cultural incongruity manifests itself most dramatically in the urban-built form. A dwelling unit no longer accommodates traditional focus on privacy and family life. Urbanized areas are alien to the cultural experiences of most inhabitants. Traditional social relationships as expressed through buildings and urban design have been abandoned in favor of imported styles appropriate for a Westernized way of life. Ecological degradation is apparent throughout the Eastern Province. Desert landscapes, possibly the most fragile on the earth, have been used as dumping grounds. The trees and other vegetation of the few oases are affected by a savage process of urbanization in which they are impediments rather than essential features of the regional landscape and economy. To cite only two examples, sewage effluents from the enlarged coastal cities destroy marine life, and unfortunate placement or lack of careful regulation of industrial facilities results in air pollution. The cities of the Eastern Province are one of three important urban districts in the country. The other two are Jidda with an extension toward Mecca, and the Riyadh area in the center of the kingdom (Fig. 1). Phenomenal growth characterizes each district. Jidda and Riyadh each had fewer than 20,000 inhabitants prior to World War II; each now contains almost one million residents. The cities of the Eastern Province were insignificant fishing villages prior to the beginning of commercial oil extraction in 1937. Currently they are the nuclei of a metropolitan conurbation with Dammam, Al-Khubar, and Dhahran as the principal centers. The spread of urbanization in the province will soon result in a strip of urbanized settlement adjacent to the Arabian Gulf that extends from Al-Khubar on the south to Jubail in the north. Occupying the middle is the Qatif oasis where urbanization threatens to disrupt traditional agriculture. CATEGORIES OF THE URBAN SPACE A traditional Arabic town is a unique phenomenon molded by physical and religious factors. The hot arid conditions prevailing on the Arabian peninsula impose a certain introverted form on a town and its constituent This content downloaded from 157.55.39.112 on Wed, 07 Sep 2016 04:36:49 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms PLANNING ARABIC TOWNS 163 MAJOR URBAN CONCENTRATIONS K' ~ . IN SAUDI ARABIA SAUDI Dhahra I-Khubar