SACM - United States of America
Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://drepo.sdl.edu.sa/handle/20.500.14154/9668
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Item Restricted Assessing Transit Oriented Development using Satellite Imagery: Riyadh vs. Phoenix(Saudi Digital Library, 2023-08-23) Almazroa, Noor; de Weck, OlivierAs urbanization becomes the way of the future, the demands on the cities are becoming more urgent, with an increased awareness of the need for sustainability and resilience, making the utilization of today’s Technology and data critical in decision-making and planning. In the first part of this thesis, I combine a few of these techniques and datasets to explore their ability to provide a helpful assessment of Transit-Oriented Development (TOD). This research assesses the transit-oriented characteristics in two cities, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and Pheonix City, Arizona, US. Both share many similarities in urban design and climate. I use high-resolution satellite imagery with Computer Vision methods to detect the built area around public transit stations to measure the building density and, combined with land use data, measure the residential and nonresidential density. Both of these measurements are important indicators of the success of a public transportation system. I found that out of the two different building detection methods, the one based on deep learning techniques was more precise, with better generalization abilities. While the method based on classical image processing techniques is more sensitive to threshold choices, with considerable variability when tested on different years. Both methods, however, were able to give a useful prediction of buildings. And from their results, I found that Phoenix City has a building density of less than 50%, even around the busiest stations downtown stations. Riyadh, on the other hand, is more compact and with at least more than 50% of the land being developed. In the second part, I formulate a System Dynamics that is validated by Phoenix’s actual ridership for the 2010-2020 period and predicts transit ridership in Riyadh. The model closely approximated Phoenix’s ridership up until 2016. The Riyadh model estimated that the ridership would start with six million riders, surpassing the predictions of the Royal Commission for Riyadh City (RCRC) of 1.6 million initially. The results of both parts indicate that given that Riyadh is more densely built with a smaller area and has a more extensive transportation system and bigger population, this should serve as an incentive to promote a more transit-oriented built environment by increasing walkability and dense mixed-use developments throughout the city.13 0Item Restricted The Governance of Mobilized Urban Policies: The Case of Riyadh’s Transit-Oriented Development Program(Virginia Tech, 2023-06-26) Altasan, Ibrahim; Hall, Ralph; Schenk, ToddCountries and cities around the world are searching for ways to plan urban development to accommodate the growing demand for public infrastructure and amenities due to high rates of urbanization. Urban policies deemed to be successful are often adopted by other cities and hence applied across contexts. Urban Policy Mobility (UPM) theories study the ways in which political relationships, power dynamics, and other potential drivers influence the circulation of urban policies. UPM provides a guiding framework to analyze the policymaking associated with mobilized urban policies to understand the socio-spatial processes that motivate the adoption of urban policies from elsewhere. This dissertation engages with the UPM literature by investigating the assemblage and implementation processes of a mobilized urban policy to explore how the fixed socio-spatial processes embedded within a particular planning culture interact with and absorb a flowing urban policy. The term flowing in this study refers to the process of transposing policies from one place to another. Little attention has been paid to how the planning culture in a developing country can shape the adoption (or non-adoption) of certain policy elements, and what challenges arise during the implementation of a flowing urban policy. Given this context, this study answers two research questions: (a) How does urban policy mobility unpack in practice in response to local socio-spatial processes? and (b) What challenges emerge when policies are transposed into new urban policy environments that are dissimilar from those in which they originated? A case study methodology was used to study the changes that occurred when a Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) urban policy was introduced in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. A qualitative content analysis of archival resources, documents, and semi-structured interviews revealed how local urban planning conditions and challenges influenced Riyadh’s TOD assemblage and implementation. Public officials and consultants from Riyadh, national officials, and experts were interviewed to develop a clear understanding of the TOD policy assemblage and implementation processes. The two main findings from this research are that: 1) there was an incomplete translation of TOD into the local planning culture, primarily due to Riyadh’s stronger emphasis on the density, diversity, and design features of TOD and less concern with the sustainability dimensions; and 2) several governance and prioritization challenges emerged during the policy implementation process, which stem from institutional constraints and institutional and resource gaps. This research expands the UPM field by tracing the trajectory of policy mutation due to local socio-spatial processes. Additionally, this study provides a conceptual framework that synthesizes three heterogeneous elements: planning culture, planning policy, and policy carriers. It offers a methodological contribution that advances UPM analysis to better explain policy mutation. This study can be used as a cautionary tale for officials engaged in adopting urban policies that originate in other jurisdictions.64 0