SPatiaL caPitaL of Saudi araBian citieS T I TE L F R AMSI DA SPATI A L C A PITA L Street connectivity Study for the R A D 2 city ProSPerity initiative OF 17 SAUDI AR ABIAN CITIES BackgrouUnndd reerptiotretl Draft June 25thD a2t0u1m5 SPatiaL caPitaL of Saudi araBian citieS Street connectivity Study for the city ProSPerity initiative Spatial Capital of Saudi Arabian Cities. Street connectivity study for the City Prosperity Initiative Copyright © United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat) 2015 All rights reserved United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat) P.O. Box 30030 00100 Nairobi GPO KENYA. Tel: 254-020-7623120 (Central Office) www.unhabitat.org HS/076/15E ISBN: 978-92-1-132684-0 Disclaimer The designations employed and the presentation of material in this publication do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the secretariat of the United Nations concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area or its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries regarding its economic system or degree of development. Excerpts may be repro- duced without authorization, on condition that the source is indicated. Views expressed in this publication do not necessarily reflect those of the United Nations Human Settlements Programme, the United Nations and its member states. Acknowledgements Authors: Eduardo López Moreno, Regina Orvañanos Murguía Background Documents: Manuel Madrid, Alexander Ståhle, Joel Hernbäck, Patrick Lamson-Hail, Pinar Caglin Data Analysis: Regina Orvañanos Murguía, Manuel Madrid, Óscar Martínez, Antony Abilla Institutional Review: Claudio Acioly, Rogier van den Berg, Kamel Bouhmad, Salvatore Fundaró, Åsa Jonsson, Marco Kamiya, Robert Lewis- Lettington, Liz Paterson, Raf Tuts, Design and Layout: Regina Orvañanos Murguía Programme Future of Saudi Arabian Cities: Tarek El-Sheikh, UN-Habitat Programme Director, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Dr. Abdul Rahman Al-Sheikh, Chairman of Future Saudi Cities Management Board, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Contents Key Findings spatial Capital in saudi cities Chapter 1: Future saudi arabia Cities programme and street Connectivity - measuring urban form through the City prosperity initiative: 1.1 The City Prosperity Initiative – Integrating spatial analysis 5 Chapter 2: street Connectivity, indicators and the infrastructure development subindex 2.1 The City Prosperity Initiative and street connectivity 7 2.2 Urban boundaries 7 2.3 Sampling of street connectivity - spatial analysis 8 Urban typologies definitions 9 Chapter 3: general results: street Connectivity index saudi Cities 3.1 Open space or ‘white land’ within cities 11 3.2 The Street Connectivity Index 12 Street Connectivity Index at intra-city level 13 3.3 Land allocated to streets 14 Land allocated to streets at intra-city level 15 Street widths 17 3.4 Street density 19 Street density at intra-city level 19 3.5 Intersection density 20 Intersection density at intra-city level 22 Intersection density and street density ratio 22 Chapter 4: intra-city analysis on street connectivity – getting inside the city 4.1 Residential – formal subdivisions 25 4.2 Residential – informal subdivisions 25 4.3 Residential – housing projects 26 4.4 Residential - atomistic or organic 27 Chapter 5: the spatial capital of cities – comparing street connectivity with other variables 5.1 City prosperity is made possible by its spatial capital: the density, streets and public open space 29 5.2 Street connectivity and built-up densities 29 5.3 Spatial capital model 31 5.4 Spatial capital and socioeconomic performance 32 5.5 Leveraging densities and maximizing the street network to increase the spatial capital 32 annex 1 City Footprints and street Connectivity indicators 34 annex 2 City of Al-Ahsa 40 City of Al-Bahah 41 City of Arar 42 City of Buraydah-Enaizah 43 City of Dammam 44 City of Hail 45 City of Jeddah 46 City of Jizan 47 City of Khamis-Mushait 48 City of Makkah 49 City of Medina 50 City of Najran 51 City of Qatif 52 City of Riyadh 53 City of Tabuk 54 City of Taif 55 City of Sakaka 56 Key Findings Spatial capital in Saudi cities 01. 05. The Street Connectivity Index results from the In general terms, street connectivity in the combination of the three variables that assess Saudi cities that are part of this study are the urban form of the city (the width, the length and varied. Excluding open space, in three cities connectivi- the number of intersections of the street network). ty is high, which means that conditions of connectivity High connectivity translates in better accessibility, are met with regards to land allocated to streets and penetration, mobility and coverage of the whole city. In intersection density. While in twelve cities connectivity general terms, Street Connectivity values of Saudi cities is moderate, in the remaining two cities, connectivity is correspond to other cities from the developing world. extremely low. However, the factors and conditions creating these 06. values are obviously different. The study disaggregates the results of the 02. Street Connectivity Index in seven typologies Largely based on the use of the automobile, grouped by residential and non-residential. The resi- the physical layout of Saudi cities has created dential type includes formal and informal subdivisions, low-density, single-use development, with spacious housing projects and atomistic (organic) development. houses and buildings. This configuration in cities from The non-residential type is comprised of urban ameni- Saudi Arabia has led to horizontal spreading of the ties, vacant land and open space. urban areas with high fragmentation of spaces and 07. some level of dispersion of house and buildings. Land ownership has historically created huge areas of open or Values disaggregated at intra-city levels shows vacant land inside city boundaries. that, within the residential typologies, the informal subdivision has on average, the highest values. 03. This type is characterized by some level of informality; In most of the cities of Saudi Arabia open yet informal subdivision does not refer to slum areas. space and vacant land, constitute up to 46 The second residential typology with high values per cent of the total land within city boundaries as corresponds to the mass housing projects; followed UN-Habitat spatial analysis in the 17 cities shows. by the formal subdivision type, which has moderate ‘White land’, as open and vacant land is called, is connectivity values. Among the residential typologies, served with state infrastructure and despite the fact that the atomistic type has the lowest connectivity values. it is complete with roads, water and streetlights it sits 08. empty. This land is located mostly in the middle of the city and the city centres. Paradoxically, layouts in formal subdivisions are similar to the layouts of informal subdi- 04. visions, but exhibit a higher level of infrastructure and The analysis of street connectivity is deter- paved roads. Formal subdivisions also have better con- mined to some extent by the existence of open nections to arterial road networks and well-delimited land. High portions of non-occupied land in the city sidewalks. Formal subdivisions cover as much as 45 per and the fragmentation of the urban fabric affect the cent of the residential land uses. They are followed by overall connectivity of the city. This fragmentation informal subdivisions that represent nearly one third. and interstitial development compromises the street Atomistic typology covers, on average, slightly less than connectivity and affects the form and functionality of one fifth of the residential surface. the city. 1 09. On the other hand, non-residential land uses (urban amenities, vacant land and open space) Based on the land allocated to streets and the street account for slightly over two-thirds of the total areas density, it is possible to determine the average street of the 17 Saudi cities. The Street Connectivity Index widths. Data shows great variations within cities. in the non-residential land uses varies greatly. Vacant Cities like Riyadh, Dammam and Tabuk, have the land has the highest score, followed by urban amenities widest streets in the Kingdom, which is indicative and open space with the lowest values. Vacant land of the widespread existence of large boulevards and category is characterized by areas with urbanized land avenues mostly designed to for private vehicles. The and clear street layouts that are not yet occupied. In analysis at intra-city level shows large disparities. The principle, they represent the future urban develop- typologies of formal and informal subdivisions of the ments. city of Tabuk have an average street width of 19 m, while the atomistic typology of Medina, with the same comPonentS of the Street amount of LAS, has street widths of only 8.6 m due to connectivity index its extensive street network. 12. 10. Intersection density, a good indicator of Land allocated to streets. In general terms, compactness and walkability, can make cities most of the Saudi cities allocate a relative more conducive to the use of non-motorized transport. adequate proportion of land to streets. However in Saudi cities the average value is 136 intersections per some cases, this proportion is over-dimensioned, square kilometre, above the optimal level estimated by which seems to be a distinctive case of the cities of UN-Habitat at around 100 intersections per square the Kingdom. With important variations, informal kilometre. Cities like Medina, with an organic street subdivisions are the typology with the closest values pattern at its core, and the city of Taif developed on to UN-Habitat standards. Interestingly, the formal the slopes of Sarawat Mountains, are optimal range. subdivision typology provides land to streets in excess; When open space is taken into consideration, the slightly above the recommended threshold. In some average value of is dramatically reduced. Due to cities values exceed –by far- those of developed cities, fragmented urban development, eight cities fall below mainly due to disproportionally wide streets. the minimum recommended values. 11. Atomistic or organic-development areas have the Street density. When open space is excluded highest intersection densities. The historic cores of street density reaches values relatively close to the the cities of Medina and Tabuk contribute to increase standard proposed by UN-Habitat’s City Prosperity the overall values of these cities’ street density. Formal Initiative (20 km). However, when open space is subdivisions and housing projects due to the presence included, street densities reduce dramatically. At of large number of gated communities, streets with intra-city level, the indicator show higher values in dead-ends or ‘T’ intersections and a very dense street residential areas than in non-residential areas. Informal network explain this excessive number of intersections. subdivisions and housing projects appear as the With some exceptions, very high intersection densities typologies with more approrpirate values, non-residen- do not translate in more connected places. tial areas, particularly the open space, and the urban amenities show very poor density of street, affecting the overall connectivity of the city. 2 os n a ñ a v Or a n gi e R © intra-city anaLySiS on This seems to be a current practice of real estate Street connectivity developers that minimize the proportion of streets and public spaces in order to maximize the number of plots and houses for sell. A more refined analysis of the Street Connectivity Index 16. based on the seven typologies, show great variances in the layout of the city and the street structure. This part analyzes A particular case within the residential typologies residential typologies. is the atomistic development that can take the form of medina-type or the rural-type settlement. With 13. an irregular street layout, intersections that are not Formal subdivisions. This typology represents frequent, roads with varying widths and inconsistent around 15 per cent of the total areas of the 17 plot sizes; atomistic development devotes- on average- Saudi cities and 45 per cent of the residential areas. slightly less land to streets. However, the old medinas This typology is characterized by an over dimension of cities like Jizan, Jeddah and Medina are characterized of the land allocated to streets and the excessive use of by a very dense street network and an intense number intersections with numerous ‘T’ crossings and other of intersections. Yet these parts of cities maintain, on forms of cul-de-sacs; thus, resulting in moderate street average, proportions of land allocated to street within connectivity values. UN-Habitat recommended values. Surprisingly, ru- ral-type developments of Saudi cities that are classified 14. as atomistic have street widths that are notoriously large Informal subdivisions represent nearly one-fifth for the functionality of these areas. of the total areas of Saudi cities. Despite the fact that informal subdivision are in the process of SPatiaL caPitaL of citieS consolidation (containing substandard housing and non-appropriate sidewalks), they are the typology that 17. exhibits the best connectivity values, closer to UN- Habitat standards. Connectivity is not a goal in itself, but a mean to create successful, prosperous cities. The role 15. of the street is to connect spaces, people and goods, The mass housing project typology represents and thereby facilitating commerce, social interaction a very small fraction of the total area in the 17 and mobility. But not just connectivity is an impor- cities (less than 2 per cent). However, in some cities this tant spatial variable; cities consist of streets, buildings typology can reach up to 7 per cent of the total urban and open space. Their distribution and configuration area and 20 per cent of all residential areas. Housing constitute the spatial capital of a city. Based on spatial projects are the public and private response to low-cost capital analysis that combines population densities with and middle income housing demands. In spite of being street connectivity, five cities feature high spatial capital; planned interventions, they tend to have less land another seven cities have medium values, while the allocated to streets than formal and informal typologies. remaining five are considered with low spatial capital. 3 18. Street connectivity and built-up densities. excessive number of intersections or extremely dense Street morphology and plot density are highly network of streets. The city of Medina is a point in correlated. Numerous studies show that as street length case. In the areas identified as high built-up densities, and intersections per square kilometre increase, so does the length of the street network is 35 per cent above the density of plots. Cities from Saudi Arabia are not the threshold, and the number of intersections is al- strange to this relation. However, due to low popula- most three times higher than minimum recommended tion densities (47 inhabitants per hectare), relatively values by UN-Habitat. dense street systems serve a smaller number of people, and during most parts of the day many streets tend to Leveraging denSitieS, remain empty. maximizing the Street 19. network In the 17 Saudi cities, it is possible to find a 21. strong correlation between the density of streets and the proportion of the city that has high built-up The existence of white land (open space and va- densities. As the proportion of areas with high built- cant land) in Saudi cities is a major cause of low up density reduces, so does the street density. When densities, wasteful use of the space, inefficient usage of open areas are excluded from the analysis and only the the street network, unproductive infrastructure invest- distribution of built-up densities is taken into account, ment and lack of available land for affordable housing. high built-up densities make up to 80 per cent of the While nearly half of land in Saudi cities remains empty, total area of the cities. However, the plot coverage of the possibility of sustainable urban development is the entire area of all Saudi cities is only 17 per cent on compromised. average. 22. 20. Building more outside the current urban pe- The analysis of different types of built-up areas rimeters is no longer an option in Saudi cities. (low, medium and high) against standard val- The estimated population growth in the next 15 years ues of the Street Connectivity Index give higher scores in Saudi Arabia corresponds to a new city of the size of to medium built-up density areas. This is because areas Najran or Hail every year. Most cities can accommo- with high plot density tend to reduce values in the date all future growth in the existing ‘white land’ areas parameters of street density and intersection density. In and still have provision for future growth. Leveraging other words, some cities are penalized either because of densities can certainly maximize the street network. os n a ñ a v Or a n gi e R © 4