Assessing Main Social Sustainability Indicators in the Designs of the Three Recent Trendy ‘Sustainable Cities’ in UAE
摘要
There is a newly emerging neighborhood-scale sustainable urban community development ‘trend’ that has recently begun in Dubai in its pioneering so-called ‘Sustainable City’ project. This urban development trend is being imitated in both Sharjah and Abu Dhabi cities, with similar projects highly anticipated to follow. The three pioneering ‘Sustainable Cities’ are claimed to be designed to mark the shift from conventional to sustainable urban communities. While environmental sustainability has received the attention in the designs of these projects, social sustainability consideration has not been investigated yet. The research objective is to define the drawbacks and potentials related to the main social sustainability aspects of Density, Accessibility, Choice, and Social Mix in these designs to better consider them in similar future projects. To achieve its objective the research adopted a case study method utilizing mixed quantitative/qualitative investigation tools. The results of the research revealed essential opportunities for social sustainability enhancement in the three analyzed case studies. Hence, a set of design actions is recommended to reconcile environmental and social sustainability measures in all new ‘Sustainable Cities’ in the UAE, as a welcomed trendy sustainable urban community development approach.