RSS 1.0Master of Science in Urban Design
Recent Submissions
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Measuring Community Acceptance and Evaluation of Smart Mobility Systems in Saudi Future CitiesNowadays, almost half of the world's inhabitants live in urban areas where information and mobile communication technologies are natural catalysts for innovations. This unprecedented urban growth of recent years required improved urban planning and management to make urban spaces more inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable. Therefore, the idea of smart cities has emerged to cope with resources and limited spaces worldwide by highly advanced technology. Smart Cities can categorize the city by intensively empowering and utilizing the latest technology to integrate human systems with physical and digital techniques. It can creatively and innovatively provide a high quality of life by mastering multiple main six dimensions: mobility, economy, environment, people, living, and government. Additionally, Smart mobility is one of the core subjects of any smart city. It involves optimizing transport and communications to consolidate new sustainability standards, efficiency, safety, and air quality. Therefore, Smart cities require having Smart people be socially smart and sustainable. Thus, this research measures the perception of the Saudi community regarding smart mobility types and usage, While exploring smart cities and highlighting the main challenges of smart mobility and smart people dimensions in smart cities. The methodology followed in this research is both qualitative and quantitative methodological choices. The research comprehensively investigate the smart cities overall approach, to build an evaluation framework to measure the community acceptance of smart mobility systems in Saudi future smart cities. At the end of this research, the main learned lessons are presented to support Saudi cities' transforming process while raising the awareness to reach smart people.
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Sustainable Indicators for Public Transportation: Assessment Model for Jeddah City Case StudyJeddah city is the second largest city in Saudi Arabia, due to its unique geographic location and the massive increase of the demographic density, as result of a rapid urban expansion there is a rising need to enhance the city’s transportation infrastructure. Furthermore, the urbanization has affected the streets safety, due to the significant increase in the use of motorization, reflected in a high level of traffic and dependence on the private vehicle. Hence, contributed in the decline of city sustainability leading to several urban issues such as: air pollution, greenhouse gas emissions, and economic downfalls. Although city transportation system is a vital pillar for the quality of life of the citizens, shading the light, that most of the cities, rely on public and private transportation and consider it as a key mode of commuting and logistics. Consiquensly, smart cities rely on using digital technology for smarter urban transport networks. Using resources which are more efficient and upgrades city utilities. Therefore, smart can be an innovative networked way of bringing together existing technology and resources to optimize their use through an integrated transport model. Consequently, this research attempts to investigate Sustainable Transportation Indicators in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. To ensure that the planned systems are following the international standards. Jeddah city is facing a Lack of quality and safe public transportation. The research aims to adopt economically viable, people-oriented and environment-friendly transport systems as a part of the sustainable development within the city. Moreover, this research adopts multiple strategies of quantitative and qualitative data collection techniques to achieve its goals and objectives. By exploring the application of smart transportation models within the city of Jeddah. Additionally, the result of the research is a set of sustainable indicators to assess sustainability in Jeddah’s transportation system. The indicators bring together; a combination between the various aspects of sustainability including; social, economic and environmental factors which contribute to the city development.
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Adaptive Use of Jeddah’s Green Infrastructure Through Flood Risk ManagementJeddah has faced many problems in terms of urban flooding and stormwater management. The impact of this issue is accelerated by the urban growth and climate change, increasing the amount and frequency of rainfall while decreasing the cities overall absorbency. This research then aims to assess the risk level of the various areas in Jeddah, and provide them with green infrastructure solutions to the urban flooding problem. This research generates a flood risk assessment of 90 defined districts in the city of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, with assigned flood mitigation strategies. It does so by creating a flood risk assessment model using hazard and vulnerability indicators. The research begins by studying the problems and impacts of urban flooding and the different approaches used in flood risk assessment and flood mitigation. It then goes on to investigate and list the various indicators used for risk assessment and green infrastructure strategies used to counter urban floods. The research then uses the set of predefined indicators, modifying it to fit the local context, and creating a set score for the different scales of the given indictors. All districts, within the scope of study, are then evaluated and classified with their final scores positioning them in a flood risk assessment matrix. The districts are then classified into one of three categories, high, moderate, or low, in relation to both their probability of flooding, and their risk of flooding. Based on these classifications, the districts are assigned a priority, and specific green infrastructure strategies, according to their inherit characteristics.
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Integral Placemaking in Sensitive Heritage Sites for successful cultural tourismThis research investigates new approaches for developing heritage sites with its relationship with cultural tourism growth. In that sense the research firstly explored the notion of place and place importance, the concept of heritage places, development approaches through years to be followed with exploring the notion of cultural tourism and its relationship with heritage. The research explored in-depth on recent approaches of heritage conservation, where it shows the need for considering urban context, people and intangible aspects. The lack of having tailored approach for developing heritage sites led the research to explore the possibilities of integrating the concept of placemaking as developed approach for heritage and cultural tourism — this through investigating in-depth on the theory history, types and attempts of development. The study also has explored several case studies locally and internationally to investigates the used method in development and identify the significant aspects and point out the shortage on each case in order to support the significant aspects which could contribute in developing the model, therefore, The study aims to build specialized model considering significant factors and aspects which could benefit designers through the development process and taking decisions.
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Child-Friendly Open Public Spaces: Towards Safety & Sociability in Residential NeighborhoodsThe rapid urbanization, high traffic density, and lack of open spaces are noticeable challenges that impose several repercussions on children within urban contexts and restrict them from living a normal childhood. Independent mobility is reduced according to the spatial deprivation of children from pedestrian experiences through urban environments. Most of the children who flourish in urban areas are trapped within indoor and virtual environments where they are deprived of contact with their communities and natural environments. Consequently, children’s opportunities for active engagement and participation in social life are decreased. Recently, child-friendly urban design has gained a lot of attention due to its remarkable advantages as it brings children’s needs and desires into practice. Creating safe and sociable child-friendly open public spaces contributes to protecting children from traffic injuries and crimes while at the same time stimulating their imagination and nurturing communication skills. This research addresses the topic of safe and sociable child-friendly open public spaces in residential neighborhoods which can significantly promote better living environments for children. Building a design framework to promote safety and sociability for children in urban contexts is the main aim that will be tackled. To achieve this aim; the research follows a theoretical approach by applying a qualitative research methodology through historical interpretation and understanding of the main design principles of safe and sociable child-friendly open public spaces. Moreover, verifying the proposed design framework will be performed by questioning the experts in the field and the public in local contexts while conducting site observation in the study area. This would be followed by an evaluative analysis of the related case-studies to demonstrate the applicability of the design framework in evaluating the level of child-friendliness in open public space. Eventually, the research introduced an adapted design framework for designing safe and sociable child-friendly open public spaces in residential neighborhoods that can be applied in local contexts.
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Strategies for Urban Regeneration of The Deteriorated Areas Case Study: JeddahAs a result of urban sprawl in Jeddah that led to losing control over the old neighborhoods and focusing more on developing new neighborhoods that attract residents through internal migration. Therefore, many deteriorated areas and slums started to appear in the urban fabric of Jeddah. However, not all these deteriorated areas need the same level of urban regeneration. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to provide a classification tool for these deteriorated areas that will contribute in helping the developers and decision-makers in the regeneration process. So, the research will address how the deteriorated areas could be classified according to specific characteristics and criteria, and what are the appropriate strategies for upgrading or regenerating each case. The data collection is derived from previous literature reviews, research studies, and different case studies of existing projects as well. The survey study will be directed to experts in the field, in order to verify the importance of the proposed characteristics that contribute to build the desired framework model. The results of the survey will examine the validation and effectiveness of the developed framework at the local scale. As it will be applied in one of the deteriorated neighborhoods of Jeddah. Finally, conclusion and recommendations will be provided at the end of the research. As it will measures the accuracy of the developed framework, and shows the extent to which developers and decision makers will rely on this framework as a classification tool measurement, for generating all the deteriorated areas whether in local or international contexts.
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Towards Enhancing the Waterfront/City Connectivity in Jeddah CityAccessibility is a significant influencing factor in the efficient operation of a metro system. This research has primarily focused on spatial connectivity of the street network accessibility indicators such as connectivity, land use mix and variety, compact and self-obsession, attractive moving environment, prevailing culture and cultural preferences, activity locations, travel duration, and affordability. Recreational waterfront developments can be just aesthetically appealing since they lack the substantial design attributes required for their users' satisfaction. Enhancing the user's comfort and happiness will encourage individuals to spend more time outside, perhaps increasing outdoor time. The approaches used in this study include a structured questioner survey, which focuses on understanding the current user's preferences and degree of satisfaction with the existing situation. This places a greater focus on representative citizen engagement, which is generally overlooked in planning difficulties. The approaches used in this study include a structured questioner survey, which focuses on understanding the current user's preferences and degree of satisfaction with the existing situation. This places a greater focus on representative citizen engagement, which is generally overlooked in planning difficulties. According to recent study, linking waterfronts with the urban framework of the city helps to revitalize waterfront efficiency and promotes physical activities along the shoreline. As a result, this emphasizes the need of providing smooth and simple access to the waterfront while also connecting it to the city structure. Furthermore, this move has a significant impact on the city's socioeconomic status by providing a motivating anchor for developers to rehabilitate the city's unoccupied properties. Furthermore, as a result of these development measures, various social opportunities can be realized. Jeddah has recently experienced a massive continuous urban expansion and a rebuilt waterfront linking the. Accessibility is a significant influencing factor in the efficient operation of a metro system. This research has primarily focused on spatial connectivity of the street network accessibility indicators such as connectivity, land use mix and variety, compact and self-obsession, attractive moving environment, prevailing culture and cultural preferences, activity locations, travel duration, and affordability.
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Measuring Community Acceptance and Evaluation of Smart Mobility Systems in Saudi Future Cities. ANowadays, almost half of the world's inhabitants live in urban areas where information and mobile communication technologies are natural catalysts for innovations. This unprecedented urban growth of recent years required improved urban planning and management to make urban spaces more inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable. Therefore, the idea of smart cities has emerged to cope with resources and limited spaces worldwide by highly advanced technology. Smart Cities can categorize the city by intensively empowering and utilizing the latest technology to integrate human systems with physical and digital techniques. It can creatively and innovatively provide a high quality of life by mastering multiple main six dimensions: mobility, economy, environment, people, living, and government. Additionally, Smart mobility is one of the core subjects of any smart city. It involves optimizing transport and communications to consolidate new sustainability standards, efficiency, safety, and air quality. Therefore, Smart cities require having Smart people be socially smart and sustainable. Thus, this research measures the perception of the Saudi community regarding smart mobility types and usage, While exploring smart cities and highlighting the main challenges of smart mobility and smart people dimensions in smart cities. The methodology followed in this research is both qualitative and quantitative methodological choices. The research comprehensively investigate the smart cities overall approach, to build an evaluation framework to measure the community acceptance of smart mobility systems in Saudi future smart cities. At the end of this research, the main learned lessons are presented to support Saudi cities' transforming process while raising the awareness to reach smart people.
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Man & Place: Understanding Human Perception of Social Interaction in Urban Public SpacesIntegrating human perception during the urban design and planning phase has proved crucial in ensuring the success and efficiency of cities. Urban public spaces designed to ensure people have positive perceptions about the place have always attracted many visitors and users for pleasure and social interaction. Therefore, understanding the human perception of social interaction plays a significant role in designing effective interactive urban public spaces. An exploration carried out highlighted shortage of research work and viable tools to effectively investigate the social interaction in urban spaces from the users' perception. This is despite the underlying significance of the users' perception of impacting the overall outlooks of urban public spaces. Worth noting that the integration of both users' and designers' perception into the framework of urban public spaces is fundamental to warranting quality and better outcomes. Accordingly, the study aims to build a tool that helps in understanding the human perception of social interaction in urban public spaces by correlating the actual settings designed and implemented by specialists (Distal Cues) with the users' perceived images (Proximal Cues). The key finding of the study highlighted a significant difference between the designers’ viewpoints and users’ perception of ideal interactive public spaces. Consequently, the influence of the users' perception in the overall construction or development of interactive public spaces cannot be understated.
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Urban Farming as a Measure of Urban Resiliency; the case of JeddahGlobally the population is increasing in urban areas due to migration and new-borns, and with a higher population increases the risk. Cities require stressing on the attempt to keep the city’s assets safe by building urban resiliency. This research focuses on enhancing Jeddah’s urban resiliency through urban farming. The goal of the research is to contribute to finding an urban farming framework applicable to Jeddah to enhance the city's resiliency and mitigate climate change and socio-economic challenges. The research objectives are finding the type and form of urban farming suitable for Jeddah and developing recommendations to adopt urban farming. The research methodology is by correlational case studies and literature Review through Books, Journals, Interviews, Live conferences, and case studies.
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Design guidelines to Improve the Air Quality in Hot Climate Open Spaces - Jeddah city as a case studyAir Pollution has become a global concern that is harming human life, and it is increasing as societies are developing. Air pollution has become the reason respiratory and cardiovascular diseases lead to death. In this research, the air quality in the urban open spaces of Jeddah city will be studied know about the quality of air in hot climate open spaces. In a hot climate, the air propagates more, and there are chances it can cause more health problems. In this scenario, the air quality should be at a satisfactory level. So, in this study, first, the air quality and the factors affecting the air quality will be determined, which will further lead to the statistical analysis to find out the significant factor that is affecting the air quality. Ultimately, this will help us to prepare a set of guidelines to enhance the air quality of the open spaces of Jeddah.
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Heritage Tourism Management ApproachesThis research examines different management approaches to heritage tourism, the top-down, value-based and integrated approach. It analyzes the positive and negative aspects of the different management approaches and critically compares their impact on heritage tourism developments within a global context. The study underlines six critical strategies that potentially contribute to creating an effective heritage management approach. These encompass heritage interpretation, balance between tourism and heritage, satisfaction of tourists, community involvement, community improvement, and heritage protection and conservation. The primary case study of this research is AlUla in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia with an emphasis on the management and decision-making process that affect heritage tourism developments and the local community. Key members of the Royal Commission of AlUla as well as significant members of the community are interviewed to develop in-depth understanding of the heritage management approach in the region. In addition to the interviews, tourist surveys were developed to collect the needed data of heritage tourist experience. The research aims to contextualize the local approach within a broader understanding of heritage management approaches worldwide. It ultimately aims to highlight the best practices that contribute to the success of heritage and cultural tourism with an eye on promoting community collaboration and sustaining the balance between tourism and heritage conservation
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Building / Street Interface : Impact on A Pedestrian ActivityStreets in urban areas are commonly defined by building façades, which more or less contribute to the character and vitality of City Streets. This research examines the building interface with street space and its impact on pedestrian activity. Building interface with streets affect pedestrian activity and opportunities for public social interaction. Large-scale buildings that occupy entire city blocks with few openings and/or access points reduce street level activity and diminish the economic/social role of streets. Rich building interfaces that incorporate mix of uses, openings and interactive functional relationship with the street enhance urban vitality and walkability in cities. The research adopts the case study as the primary method for understanding, examining and collecting meaningful data, which enriches our current understanding of the impact of building interface with city streets. The study also examines representative case study from the city of Jeddah : Palestine street to identify the building interface design elements that generate rich pedestrian activity on the street level. The research conclude with examines two segments of Palestine street and identify the poor and rich building interface with scoring table for each segment .
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Model for enhancing Saudi Cities' resiliencyUrban resilience has come to play a central role in the new urban policy agenda, as well as in the academic literature on cities, urbanization, and links with disasters and climate change. Moreover, the emphasis on the participatory and communicative side of planning has grown in the past decade, and planners have developed various theories to empower communities and increase communication. However, to accomplish highly effective public participation programs that enhance cities' resiliency, a very good job of planning must be done. The real challenge is to design an appropriate program where the techniques match the purpose, reach the interested stakeholders, and result in a clear linkage between public participation and urban resilience. The goal of this study is to introduce a public participation tool that helps in expanding the Resilient capacity of the Saudi cities. This study used the concluded results from the previous theoretical and practical work as a reference to create a strong theoretical background discussing several aspects of the subject. Additionally, a conceptual proposal was designed relying on the research data analyses followed by the implementation phase of the proposal. Finally, the achieved results had been considered as the final project to improve the cities resiliency through public participation
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Placemaking in spiritual sites for successful religious tourismPlacemaking is considered an action that intends to shape open spaces and create a better image for a place. This study aims to enrich the spiritual experience in sacred sites and confirm the relationship between spiritual place, place attachment and spiritual identity. This is done through analyzing the tool of placemaking in the case of Al-Masjid al Haram in Makkah targeting the overall development of the religious tourism sector. To achieve this purpose, A framework is presented relaying on analytical approach to define urban sacred sites, placemaking, urban environmental psychology, and religious tourism suggesting that the surrounding urban environment affects people’s sense of spirituality in religious sites. Concluding the research with a model to improve the level of spirituality and therefor religious tourism in Al-Masjid al Haram
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Temporary urbanism as an approach for public spaces revitalizationPublic spaces are the core of cities, especially neighborhoods public spaces. They reflect quality of life, the degree of social interaction, and economic prosperity. Cities encourage many urban development projects that focus on public spaces revival and quality upgrades. However, most of these projects have a fixed and static approach and require an extended time to be carried into reality; starting with; the design process, community consent, regulatory approvals, and securing funds, and so on. Also upon investigating the local context of Saudi Arabia, the public spaces in city of Jeddah are not fully utilized to their full potential and lack social interaction. This indicate that the overall process and situation does not cope with the changing nature of communities, therefore, the "temporary urbanism" approach allows for the dynamic use of public spaces by incorporating the element of time. Temporary urbanism is deemed a contemporary, flexible and viable approach to urban development that helps revitalize public spaces. The research examines "public events" as a tool to enhance the users’ experience, to increase the success and revive public spaces. The main objective is to set a framework for the employment of the occasional events at the level of neighborhood public spaces. The study explores the literature and case studies to develop the framework building process. In addition to investigate and develop the criteria and tools for selecting and managing the events in neighborhoods in the context of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The framework aims to help stakeholders and decision-makers take the necessary actions to revive the cities’ sluggish public spaces. This is aligned with enhancing the quality of life in the city as designated in the Kingdom's 2030 vision locally and achieving the United Nations' sustainable development goals globally.
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Investigating the relationship between neighborhood urban design and sick neighborhood syndromeThe neighborhood has become the focus of attraction of urban planners, designers, and architects. Over the last two decades, the field of study of the neighborhood and its relationship with health has witnessed an explosion of interest. Several researchers investigated neighborhood problems and its impacts on well-being. Different urban problems vary in mental and physical health impacts. Lots of cross-sectional researches linked the characteristics of neighborhood whether physical or social to the health condition of the community. Furthermore, heart disease, skin disorder, cancer diabetes, depression, and drug use are some of the health problems that an individual might face while living in an insufficient neighborhood particularly in harsh climate conditions. In a desert climate, thermal bad performance can lead to urban problems such as the well-known phenomenon "Urban Heat Island (UHI)". The later can lead to several illness syndromes for residents. Reviewing the literature revealed a gap in the knowledge of the detailed relationship between urban design elements and sick health syndrome. The thesis aims to build a framework of the neighborhood design elements and its interconnection with illness syndromes. Similar to the Sick Building Syndrome (SBS), the paper introduces a new term which is “Sick Neighborhood Syndrome” (SNS). This research follows the scientific approach with multi- research methods. The study follows three steps. These are: analytical literature review, record fact from the field, and numerical analysis. The analytical literature review is done to collect data and information to build a framework about neighborhood urban design and its relationship with sick neighborhood syndrome. A selected district from Jeddah is investigated and analyzed through recording facts from the field. Observation and survey are the main tools of the field study. Furthermore, the numerical analysis is the last step that employees different software, these are Space—syntax, and Envi-met. This aids the research to reach its final results and to validate the relationship between neighborhood design elements and sick syndromes. The research includes five main chapters (Table1-1). Chapter one introduces the entire thesis. Chapter two and three review and analyze the literature to achieve the second objective of the thesis “build a theoretical framework of neighborhood elements and sick neighborhood syndrome”. Chapter four focuses on the field study and the numerical analysis. Chapter five summarize the results and set some recommendations for government design makers and urban designers. V Al-shati district in Jeddah was selected for the field study. The research relies on subjective assessment and the numerical analysis to analyze the case study. Space-syntax and En-vimet are employed for the analysis. Space-syntax examines the accessibility, connectivity, and walkability in the neighborhood, while Envi-met examines the environmental features. Two clusters in Al- shati district are examined to compare and investigate the effect of the built environment on neighborhood performance. The survey results confirmed the analysis results of numerical analysis. Also, it explores the life habits and health of the residents and its relation to the thermal and built environment. Two forms of survey were used, one for experts and another one for the neighborhood residents
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Toward enhancing Jeddah city imageStreets are one of the important parts of the city’s public realm where they represent most of the cities outdoor. In the urban design literature, most of the urbanists had agreed that maintaining a good street quality is associated with positive city image and better standards of living. Throughout the history, commercial streets are considered as one of the dominant types of urban streets, where they represent the city’s vibrant axis and play a significant role in manifesting the image of the city. With the implication of the rapid growth that Jeddah had faced, this had brought many accumulated issues regarding the design of the public realm and commercial streets. This had contributed to the shortage of adequate ordinance to regulate the visual appearance and functionality of Jeddah’s commercial streets. This had created a visually overloaded and uncomfortable street environment that is associated with negative impacts on the citizen's wellbeing. Therefore, this research aimed to create an assessment tool to investigate the user’s perception in the commercial streets of Jeddah. The main goal of this research is to conclude with recommendations to enhance the image and the visual quality of Jeddah’s commercial streets to improve the city image and the societies wellbeing. In order to design the research assessment tool, the research follows a qualitative scientific methodology by reviewing the theoretical literature about the research scope and analyzing international and regional case studies of street enhancement tools. To validate the assessment tool, the research will employ a structural survey for the experts. Also, the research will conduct a case study in Heraa street in Jeddah to investigate the problem by employing user survey and site observation. Further, a set of recommendation was proposed to uplift the visual quality and the public image of Jeddah’s commercial streets. That will help to maintain a positive city image and will foster the self-esteem and sense of belonging of Jeddah’s citizens
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Place identity in Urban places in JeddahThis paper focuses on place identity and its significance in ensuring continuity and attachment between man and place, which fosters and maintains the psychological well-being of individuals. In today's globalized world, place identity is at risk due to the dramatic social, economic, and physical changes that affected the urban settings of Jeddah. Thus resulting in a negative impact on the socio-cultural aspect as well as its bearing on the urban fabric, visual image and architectural identity. This paper identifies the issues concerning place identity through exploring the concept of place and its theories in Literature. Furthermore, it investigates the relationship between the three main components of place identity: physical settings, activities, and meaning and their attributes, through the use of qualitative methods. A questionnaire survey and interviews were conducted to examine place experience and to identify the characteristics of the places that influenced and would then benefit in terms of development of place identity which in turn contribute to securing a sense of place.
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Auqmented reality (AR) as a tool for evoking Urban memory of Jeddah historic SiteOld Saudi cities have undergone dramatic changes over the last seventy years after the boom in the oil industry and urban developments. However, these transformations led to the neglect of the old urban fabric by destroying the traditional spatial organization, historic buildings, and city walls in different old Saudi cities. Consequently, many historical elements changed, and the traditions, lifestyle, spirit, and identity of the historical city disappeared, leaving the city without connections to the past or associated urban memory. The main goal of this research is to explore the potential application of augmented reality (AR) and test its validity and acceptance among visitors as a digital tool to evoke the physical urban memory and the disappearing urban heritage. Also, raise the cultural heritage awareness of visitors and tourists by promoting urban heritage sites and historical buildings. The research relies on the process of the scientific research methodology carried through multiple research methods — first, the analytical review of the historical background of using technology in cultural heritage domain and its interrelation with heritage interpretation. Second, the analysis of international case studies that utilized AR in historical and touristic sites; and finally, the augmented reality experiment simulation method through the application of AR in the historical district of Jeddah through old photographs and 3D modeling documentation. The AR mobile application going to be used by local visitors and tourists so that they could experience the AR simulation. Accordingly, the research anticipated a higher level of acceptance from the users of the AR tool and its utilization as a solution for documenting, recording, and managing heritage sites and improving their experience or ambiance.
