The feasibility of GIS in urban planning in Riyadh

Abstract

Over the past decade, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia has experienced rapid growth in its urban industrial areas. The municipal government has responded by creating a Geographic Information Systems (GIS Centre), but its usefulness in urban planning is unclear. This research will address this question by: 1) examining The different ways GIS can be; 2) assessing existing industrial land use conditions as well as critical issues that the city presently faces in planning; 3) analyzing current GIS applications being used by Riyadh Municipality and the GIS Centre; and 4) recommending improvements to urban land-use planning through enhanced GIS applications. This research concludes that a step-by-step approach that can be embedded into ArcMap Software that is currently being used by the Task Force Centre would be the optimal solution. Advantages and disadvantages of the approach are critically examined, including a discussion of future goals for this project.