Shaping sustainable cities in the GCC

Sustainable urban master planning is a key aspect of future cities’ net zero strategies. Get this wrong and it negates other major efforts to decarbonise, such as reducing emissions from transport or energy sectors.

Net zero means achieving a balance between the levels of greenhouse gases emitted and the amount removed from the atmosphere. This can be achieved through multiple strategies and will need a mixture of approaches that each provides an incremental benefit to produce the transformational shift required.

The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) has an advantage over much of the world in that a sizeable amount of planning in the region is still greenfield, providing the opportunity for master planners and governments to create mixed-use communities that can be accessed and navigated by walking, cycling and micromobility rather than by car, with more essential services within easy reach of those living or working in an area, better public transport connections and less focus on road networks.

However, there has been a tendency in the region to focus on high-quality, attractive gated communities for residents where a car is essential to get around, and there are few amenities available within a walkable distance. Local freight and logistics are managed by road and for many, a car or taxi is essential to travel to work. Still today, master plans are launched that are designed around road transport, although this is gradually changing.

To help the region achieve its Net Zero targets, AtkinsRéalis has launched the “Engineering Net Zero in the GCC” report that highlights the interdependency between the built environment, energy, and transport sectors to reduce carbon emissions. 

People-centric approach

Sustainable cities or communities need to consider liveability, work and access to shops, schools and essential services by a range of non-car and road-based modes. Good design and good planning that achieve net zero goals need to appreciate people-centric approaches to the built environment. This means integrating land use and urban transport planning and ensuring that high performance buildings and environmental solutions will reduce energy needs. Master planners and developers must consider how institutional investors and funds are making their investment decisions – do the plans meet their portfolios’ sustainability requirements, and how those portfolios perform against Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) criteria.

Saudi Arabia is undergoing a significant period of building new communities, towns and cities that will help diversify its economy and attract tourism, industry and long-term foreign investment as companies set up in new cities and create jobs for local communities, as part of its Vision 2030 strategy. NEOM’s low-carbon ambitions include The Line, a 170km-long linear,carbon-neutral smart city running from the Red Sea to the region’s mountains. It will be powered entirely by renewable energy and prioritize health and well-being over transportation and infrastructure.

The rapid growth in the UAE’s built environment needs no introduction. The Dubai 2040 Urban Master Plan maps out a comprehensive plan for a sustainable urban development in the emirate. It focuses on enhancing people’s happiness and quality of life by reducing energy demands and encouraging walking, cycling and sustainable mobility. The plan also aims to develop integrated sustainable housing complexes to meet the needs of citizens. Integrated communities will be developed according to the highest planning standards, with green spaces, commercial centres and recreational facilities.

Decarbonizing the built environment

The building blocks for creating sustainable urban communities needs to be in place, driven by planning legislation and strategic land use planning. The focus must be on existing sites within metropolitan areas, particularly those that lay fallow. This should include stricter rules around regeneration and retrofitting existing buildings to bring them up to the required standards in terms of energy efficiency and internal comfort and wellbeing. To help reduce carbon emissions for existing buildings, SNC-Lavalin has developed DecarbonomicsTM, a data-driven solution to decarbonize the built environment in a cost-effective way to enable asset owners to contribute to demand reductions and net zero goals.  

The region’s built environment continues to be very concrete based, and for construction to decarbonize it needs to transform digitally, embrace modern methods of construction (MMC) and investigate novel materials use. Leading companies are taking these steps, but government legislation is required in some cases to accelerate the process, particularly to push the use of MMC and to ensure safety is proven for greener materials. There is work underway to decarbonize cement production to an extent through the adoption of refuse derived fuel, which diverts waste from landfill. Carbon capture technology, as is used in the oil & gas sector in region, could be applied to the cement process creating a form of ‘green’ cement, but no incentives or drivers for this exist at present.

Demand side management will also play a key role in energy planning, and governments can play an active role in shifting cultural thinking around electricity and water use in the region. This is happening but there is still significant opportunity to fast-track change in the GCC. Facility management (FM) planning needs to begin at the design stage for a major asset. For owners, good FM will result in their investment performing far better, with controlled maintenance costs and the building being able to attract higher-value tenants.

In brief, delivering high performance-built environment solutions for new and existing urban environments is a critical activity and will be at the forefront of decarbonizing cities in the GCC. To really force and drive change in the way the built environment is designed and operated, legislation and design codes must be enhanced. This should include stricter rules around regeneration and retrofitting existing buildings to bring them up to the required standards in terms of energy efficiency and wellbeing.  A well-communicated, clear strategy on the benefits of owning and running low carbon, highly efficient buildings will result in positive changes that benefit the GCC net zero targets. 

This article was first published in Khaleej Times in November 2022.