Informal settlement areas are a phenomenon that spreads in all countries of the world, and popular attempts reflect popular trends with the aim of obtaining housing. Major cities in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia suffer from the spread of this phenomenon in a large way, which affects the urban development process and the research aims. In general, to evaluate urban policies and determine their effectiveness and suitability for dealing with degraded informal settlements in order to extract the best of these policies to deal with the spread of informal settlements in Saudi cities. This is done by studying the concepts and characteristics of informal settlement areas and their role in providing housing for the residents and the problems they suffer from, with a focus on studying the informal settlement areas in the city of Makkah Al-Mukarramah in terms of their size, the reasons for their emergence analyzing their current situation, and then analyzing the opinion of experts, real estate developers and residents through a set of interviews, questionnaires and informal settlements site data in the city of Makkah Al-Mukarramah. This is done to determine the most important criteria that can be focused on during the policy of upgrading the urban and architectural environment of the region. In addition, studying the social and economic aspects of the residents in order to improve the reality of these areas without resorting to comprehensive removal operations, which have always been the adopted approach in dealing with these areas, and then drawing general results and presenting the proposed recommendations.

Nowadays, 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.

Jeddah 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.

The 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.

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. 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.

Integrating 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.

Air 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.

Streets 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 .

Placemaking 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

The 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