Regulating Saudi Cities and Challenges of Jeddah Urbanization - Dissertation Example

According to some estimates, the population may continue to increase to reach 39 million by the year 2020. The urban percentage of the national population reached 87% in 2010 (UN-Habitat 2011). At 12 to 29 persons per hectare, the gross density of Saudi cities is generally low (MOMRA 2001). As urban population decreases, suburban population increases, creating urban sprawl which forces municipalities into jurisdictional boundary expansions necessary to address suburban population growth. Policy regimes and management have been ineffective in guiding this urban expansion, which might lead to more costly provisions for public infrastructure networks (Angel 2007).

Because of this, balanced urban growth may be a challenge for public sector authorities. According to many observers (eg Garba, 2004), in Saudi Arabia, the government’s public initiatives for public development has accelerated the spatial expansion of cities according to many observers (e.g. Garba 2004). In the last four decades, examples of policy agenda problems include the land grant policy and interest-free loans. Because of these policies, major cities, such as Riyadh and Jeddah has massively expanded through distribution, free of cost to the general public, hundreds of thousands of residential plots.

The rapid expansion of the road network and utilities, with high financial, outlays, was also stimulated by these policies. Since the founding of Saudi Arabia in 1932, urban growth has been considered by most political and administrative leaders to be essential to the social and economic well-being of local communities. This growth was initially managed by boundary expansion for the local municipalities, which encouraged business and population expansion, along with other urban development components.

Some commentators have broadly viewed urbanization as positive due to the fact that government policies have achieved first-rate infrastructure and increased standards of living in a short time.