<p>Increasingly, the United Arab Emirates is becoming known for its initiatives to develop smart cities, often integrating cutting-edge technologies, as well as being environmentally sustainable, through initiatives like the Dubai Smart City Initiative and Abu Dhabi Economic Vision 2030. The study investigates how the UAE approaches smart growth and urban sustainability from a strategic standpoint, as it applies to the technological, governance, and environmental sustainability advancement in cities such as Abu Dhabi and Dubai. The primary goal of this study is to understand how effective present-day smart city initiatives have been in fostering the desired sustainable urban development, ascertain how stakeholders perceive them, and provide feasible policy recommendations for improving urban sustainability whilst meeting global sustainability goals. It combines mixed methods, including content analysis of secondary data, surveys with 550 respondents, and semi-structured interviews with 30 key stakeholders, to explore smart growth and urban sustainability in Abu Dhabi and Dubai. The investigation incorporates quantitative methods with qualitative insight in the form of thematic coding to examine important sustainability factors like urban design, transport, green spaces, and public participation in planning. The top smart cities in the IMD Smart City Index 2023, Abu Dhabi and Dubai, lead the MENA region in optimizing smart growth and urban sustainability initiatives such as adopting autonomous transportation, renewable energy projects, citizen-centric technologies core parts of the country’s vision of the UAE Vision 2030 to shift the economy base from oil dependency into more diverse economic opportunities and as well as improve quality of life and position themselves as true global models for sustainable urban development. Thematic analysis showed that compact urban design, sustainable transportation, green spaces, public participation, and smart infrastructure are among the main factors that drive urban sustainability in UAE cities; and they are the last few important subcategories of sustainable transportation and green spaces, as being emphasized for being environmental and social benefits. In contrast with previous GCC or international studies focusing on technological or economic dimensions, this study uniquely integrates the spatial, social, and governance dimensions through a mixed-method design for a more complete understanding of urban sustainability in the UAE. First, this study analyzes strategic and technological frameworks; second, it examines stakeholder perceptions; finally, it provides policy recommendations for improving urban sustainability.</p>