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The role of spatial structure resilience in the demolition decisions of Jeddah districts
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2025-04-10
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Abstract
Cities today face significant environmental challenges, including climate change, drought, flooding, and heat waves. These issues demand new approaches to help cities endure and adapt, leading to the emergence of resilience—the ability of a city to withstand and adjust to future threats. While resilience has multiple definitions, its core objective remains ensuring cities meet their inhabitants' physical, social, and economic needs with minimal disruption. Understanding a city's capabilities is crucial to assessing its resilience, and this paper focuses on districts as manageable units that reflect urban resilience. This study examines the resilience of districts' spatial structures, a critical component of urban resilience. Based on broad references, key qualities of resilient spatial structures include internal and external connectivity, mobility, accessibility, and legibility. Evaluating these aspects provides insight into spatial resilience. The study assesses several districts in Jeddah, including demolished ones, using a quantitative analysis based on space syntax theory and techniques. Findings indicate that many districts exhibited poor spatial structure resilience, contributing to their demolition. Additionally, the study identified areas within resilient districts, such as Al-Rehab, where specific vulnerabilities diminished overall resilience, leading to their eventual demolition. These results validate the proposed methodology in identifying vulnerable districts at the city scale and pinpointing weak areas within resilient districts. The findings offer crucial insights for necessary interventions to enhance the resilience of Jeddah's districts, informing future urban planning and development strategies.