Developing Buildings Permits Systems Platforms (BPSP) for driving change to introduce GeoBIM potentials, challenges, and opportunities

Cities growth requires development in tools and applications to manage achieving city strategic vision with clear smart policies, which is challenging to achieve with traditional methods. So, the importance of adopting integrated technologies like BIM, GIS, and GeoBIM is becoming essential and beneficial. Many countries have developed using such technologies to enhance the performance of Building Permits Systems (BPS). The need to build a system that unifies practices, standards, and protocols within one place in a manageable platform shall enhance the performance of BPS. So, the aim is to assess the capabilities of implementing GeoBIM in Saudi BPSP municipalities for developing procedures and workflows and to define the potentials and barriers of change in systems. So, the research focused on developing existing systems with a semi-structured interview evaluates the capabilities and workflows for adopting GeoBIM in the Riyadh, Jeddah, and Mecca municipalities.  In conclusion, the research results 21 factors of GeoBIM implementation that shall initiate a foundation for further studies fulfilling gaps in such study areas

Ge-Government: A Geographic Information Based E-Government Adoption Framework

The aim of this research is to assess the influential role of Geographic Information -as the location information concept- over citizens E-government adoption model citizens to adopt e-government and to introduce a full GI-based e-government citizens’ adoption framework entitled GE-government. A thorough literature review was executed in order to examine how GI is relevant to e-government services and to identify the aspects of GI that may affect e-government adoption by citizens. This paper proposes a factor that could affect e-government adoption modelling, which has not been identified in the literature, so far. The paper concludes with a proposed GE-government citizens’ adoption framework and outlines future research that will examine its validity

Development of spatial inspection methods to support building inspections and compliance

The use of spatial information is important to performing building inspections and determining compliance according to regulations. This research identifies the current issues relating to lack of access to spatial information, poor integration of data sources and lack of quality information in the inspection process. A spatially-enabled framework to support building inspections was designed and proposed. A prototype was developed for a case study in a district of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and used to evaluate the framework. The prototype utilised a range of data and imagery of various quality to identify and compare instances of violations with calculated certainties. Results indicate substantial benefits to building inspectors for integrating a spatially-enabled process into a building inspection workflow

City indicators : now to Nanjing

This paper provides the key elements to develop an integrated approach for measuring and monitoring city performance globally. The paper reviews the role of cities and why indicators are important. Then it discusses past approaches to city indicators and the systems developed to date, including the World Bank's initiatives. After identifying the strengths and weaknesses of past experiences, it discusses the characteristics of optimal indicators. The paper concludes with a proposed plan to develop standardized indicators that emphasize the importance of indicators that are measurable, replicable, potentially predictive, and most important, consistent and comparable over time and across cities. As an innovative characteristic, the paper includes subjective measures in city indicators, such as well-being, happy citizens, and trust.Cultural Policy,City Development Strategies,Cultural Heritage&Preservation,ICT Policy and Strategies,Housing&Human Habitats

The negative impacts of subdivision regulation on the residential built environment : Jeddah's experience

PhD ThesisLand subdivision plans (LSPs) are the basis of development and transform untouched lands into modern residential areas. Subdivision regulation (SR) plays a key role in the process of organisation, design, planning and development of residential areas. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) relies on a single unified SR guideline formulated by the central government that applies one conventional development LSP approach for all Saudi cities. This approach does not take account of the provision of the final product or any particular part of it (e.g. housing units, public service plots, etc.), as well as after-sale services such as maintenance and management. Situated in the American and Saudi subdivision literature, this research first examines the quality of what this type of regulated development produces at a macro (city) scale relating to the structure of the urban form being built in Jeddah. It finds that at this scale, low-density car-reliant urban sprawl results – exactly the type of development that misses the sustainable liveability rhetoric the SR documents espouse, and which undermines Jeddah’s planning department’s attempts to meet the city’s 21st century challenges of rapid demographic and economic growth, and climate change. The research then investigates the quality of the public services and facilities provision at a micro (district) level by appraising the quality of two conventionally developed subdivision districts in Jeddah. It finds the quality of the public services and facilities is poor, especially for those residents not using a car. Building plots stand vacant/semi-built for long periods of time, and soft infrastructure provision (schools, parks, community facilities) are often slow to arrive – if they arrive at all. A face-to-face survey of resident heads of households in these two districts revealed that these shortcomings made life very difficult. The research also explored the regulations’ content and implementation process and, as part of this element of the investigation, interviewed local planners and conventional developers to gain a better understanding of how they perceived their role, the quality of these localities, and the shortcomings in the system that produced this type of development. The conventional developers were of the view they already provided too much, and if anything the regulations should be relaxed, not strengthened; the planners’ iv perception was that the regulations were about right, requiring essential services but not so restrictive as to prevent development. The residents’ survey from the original case studies also revealed preferences for a number of other localities in Jeddah where provision was better. The research investigated the development practice of these localities (‘non-conventional development’), by visiting the localities and interviewing the developers and found a smart growth/New Urbanism model of development, which could provide better quality public realm and up-front infrastructure provision, albeit at a cost and rather exclusively. This thesis concludes that it is important to improve the current conventional practices of LSP development to enable Jeddah to provide a more sustainable and more liveable urban form than is currently created, and presents a set of recommendations to achieve this. These include recommendations to amend the SR guidelines based on comprehensive studies conducted with modern techniques incorporating residents’ aspirations, developers’ suggestions, officials’ ideas, inputs from urban planners, and autonomy to local regulators (increased role and responsibility of Jeddah Municipality) cumulatively aimed at provision of better public facilities and services. There are still some possible venues to conduct future researches, such as encouraging planning and consulting offices to reveal their views of the current SR code and LSP development. Moreover, residents’ perceptions should be studied and included in unconventional subdivision plans to fulfil their satisfaction. Finally, it is useful to study and analyse the views of public services and facilities providers, particularly pertaining to their role within the LSP approval process

A REVIEW OF THE INFORMATION SYSTEMS USED BY PUBLIC SECTOR ORGANIZATIONS IN SAUDI ARABIA

This is a qualitative review of the information systems used by public sector organisations in Saudi Arabia. The Google Scholar database was searched to select the papers dealing with IS in other countries and then specifically in Saudi Arabia. The selected papers were discussed under the sections of IS, IT, e-government, and information security in the case of other countries and under the sections of IS, IT, Knowledge management, and e-government in the case of Saudi Arabia. The difference between other countries and Saudi Arabia in the number of papers on each topic was considered to suggest future research topics. Some limitations of this review were also mentioned at the end

The ability of the local planning authority to implement zoning regulations : a case study of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

PhD ThesisThe Municipality of Jeddah adopted a ‘smart growth policy’ to address issues of urban sprawl and housing affordability that resulted in the adoption of new zoning regulations in 2007. The new regulations intended to generate urban intensification and vertical expansion. Jeddah Municipality have permitted six-storey dwellings with a parking level in areas of existing low rise detached housing, which have caused conflict between residents and developers over infringement of privacy. The implementation of zoning regulations has exposed inherent weaknesses at the Municipality level. The aims of the research are: firstly, to explore the rationale of the Municipality of Jeddah in increasing buildings heights. Secondly, to assess the performance of the local government and to identify the critical factors that determines its performance. Thirdly, to explore the impact of the applying the new regulations and residents reaction. The research uses mixed-methods and case studies to collect primary and secondary data. The fieldwork includes the views of householders, city officials and professionals. The research uses descriptive and inferential statistics to analyse quantitative data and description and thematic text to analyse qualitative data. Furthermore, it draws on the UN-HABITAT Urban Governance Index (UGI) to evaluate the performance of Jeddah Municipality. The main findings of the study are that there is a need to increase buildings heights to accommodate the increase of population and their future housing needs and demands but this need to be planned with greater sensitivity to neighbourhood context. There are deficiencies in the planning system at the local level specifically there is a lack of integration between urban planning, urban management and other stakeholders. Residents who have no recognised voice in the planning decision making process managed to overturn decisions. The study concludes that, in the Saudi context, a blanket mixing of building heights in residential areas is unacceptable.Ministry of Higher Education as well as the Faculty of Environmental Design at King Abdulaziz University in Jedda