Cities in Saudi Arabia struggling to meet sustainability challenge

Both Riyadh and Jeddah are ranked lower quartile in this year’s report finishing in 76th and 81st place respectively.

September 15^th 2016: Riyadh and Jeddah need to address a number of key issues if they want to improve their sustainability performance, according to the 2016 Sustainable Cities Index from Arcadis, the leading global Design & Consultancy for natural and built assets.

The study was compiled for Arcadis by the Centre for Economic and Business Research (Cebr) and explores three core pillars of sustainability – social (people), environmental (planet) and economic (profit) to develop an indicative ranking of 100 of the world’s leading cities. The overall index is informed through an analysis of 32 different indicators and can also be broken down into three sub-indices across each individual pillar.

Both Riyadh and Jeddah are ranked lower quartile in this year’s report finishing in 76^th and 81^st place respectively. This is behind five other cities in the Middle East, with low scores on the planet and profit indices negatively impacting their overall performance. Large populations in both cities are creating issues around demographics including a need for better social infrastructure, whilst high energy consumption, emissions and limited use of fossil fuels is driving a lower environmental score.

Paul Souaid, Managing Director, Arcadis Saudi Arabia said: “Whist the study indicates a number of areas for improvement, there are lots of positive elements within the Kingdom’s Vision 2030 that should boost Jeddah and Riyadh’s future performance. Investment in new infrastructure will act as a catalyst for growth and make both cities an easier place to do business, whilst the drive to diversify the economy away from a reliance on hydrocarbons should deliver environmental benefits. Similarly, if implemented, the proposed introduction of a White Land tax could help to address a shortage of affordable housing and enable more middle and lower income Saudis to enter the housing market. There’s a strong strategy in place however the challenge now will be to implement it effectively over the next decade, particularly in an economy that’s exhibiting slower growth.”

The overall ranking for the eight cities in the Middle East in this year’s report are as follows:

The full findings from the global report can also be viewed here:Sustainable Cities Index 2016.

Significant variation in sustainability performance of many GCC cities:

This year’s report highlights that cities within the Middle East are living at extremes and many exhibit divided personalities, scoring particularly well in some areas but poorly in others. This is most apparent in the profit sub-index where cities are placed as far apart as 4^th (Dubai) and 97^th (Amman) globally.

These extremes are also notable at an individual city level with clear differences across the three sustainability pillars.  As an example, Dubai and Abu Dhabi excel in the profit arena where they lead the region and sit in 4^th and 13^th place globally. However, they perform poorly on the planet sub-index coming in 95^th and 96^th in the world and lower than anywhere else in the region apart from Doha.

Muscat tells another story of contrasts, placing in the top ten globally on the people sub-index but ranking 85^th in the world for economic sustainability. Similarly, Amman scores lowest in the region for profit (97^th globally) and people (71^st globally) but it leads the region on planet (55^th globally). Where there is a degree of consistency for the Middle East cities, is around low environmental sustainability scores. This is partially attributable to the climate, the vast reserves of fossil fuels, but also the fact that cities in growth mode typically have a larger carbon footprint as investment drives higher energy use.

John Batten, Global Cities Director at Arcadis said: “Our index shows that all cities around the world face their own urban challenges and none of them can yet claim to have earned the title of being a completely sustainable city. Understanding the interplay between the physical, social and economic systems can help a city to achieve a more effective balance and a stronger sustainability performance.”

Cities in the Middle East have younger populations on average:

All of the cities in the Middle East have comparatively young populations compared with other parts of the world. Doha has the highest median age in the region (35.6 years) whilst Amman is the youngest (23.1 years). This should hold these cities in good stead in the future as a significant portion of citizens will remain in the labour force for longer, enabling faster growth than can be achieved in older economies.

This year’s report recognizes that all cities in the study are at various stages of evolution, some further along their sustainability journey than others. Established European cities lead this year’s index, occupying 16 of the top 20 places, however they enjoy a clear advantage due to a more moderate climate and an economically balanced population. Developing cities in other regions contend with more extreme climates and rapid urbanization, whilst a lack of financial resource continues to inhibit their overall performance.

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