Urban sprawl and its negative effects on Jeddah

Description

Urban sprawl is considered a major issue in Saudi Arabia due to its impact on all
the government sectors. This study presents three main facets that affect urban sprawl:
unplanned migration, weak infrastructure, and car dependency. Migration generates
significant growth beyond the current absorptive capacity and future demand of the city. In addition, migration generates unorganized population distribution, which leads to multiple city centers forming resulting in an unclear city center. Weakness in services in some urban areas also result due to the emergence of unplanned settlements. Infrastructure is affected by this significant and rapid growth, which leads to inadequate services that do not meet the residents' needs, resulting in a deteriorating quality of life. Car dependency has many negative effects including traffic congestion, air pollution, road accidents and fatalities, and decline in public health. The weakness of public transport furthers this problem. The aim of this thesis is to discuss how the negative impacts of urban sprawl are affecting Jeddah Saudi Arabia specific to each axis, present a review of the literature, and evaluate a proposed new development project which aims to restructure an unplanned settlement as a case study.

Period	4 May 2013
Examinee	Mohammed Hamzah Bahaydar
Examination held at	Ball State University
Degree of Recognition	International