Toward integrated land use and transport planning in fast-growing cities: The case of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

Abstract

Integrated land use and transportation planning is vital in rapidly growing cities, such as Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The current land use and transport planning policies and practice in Jeddah focus on different visions, such that neither land use nor transport issues are managed effectively or efficiently. To prevent managing these issues in isolation, Jeddah's urban planners require methods of integrated land use and transport planning that can contend with the dynamics of Jeddah's urban growth. Dynamic land use and transport interaction models are a valuable method to address this growth. This study uses a cellular automata-based Land-Use Transport Interaction (LUTI) model to assess and simulate different (proposed) land use and transport policy interventions in Jeddah over a 20 year period (2011–2031). The impact of both isolated and integrated policy interventions on land use and transportation were explicitly simulated in the model. Local planners and experts assessed the results of the model. The results show that the dynamic model provides a useful tool for simulating the various planning visions in the city. As such, the model provides a new, valid, proactive land use and transport planning approach to address land use and transportation challenges in the early planning stages and facilitates shared visions of planners. Policies and integrated strategies that stem from this model may provide a sustainable land use and transportation future for Jeddah.