A vision for directing future planning efforts: the case of villages of southwestern Saudi Arabia

Habitat International 26 (2002) 51–72

A vision for directing future planning efforts: the case of villages of southwestern Saudi Arabia Mohammed Abdullah Eben Saleh* Department of Architecture and Building Sciences, College of Architecture and Planning, King Saud University, P.O. Box 57448, Riyadh 11574, Saudi Arabia Received 25 October 2000; received in revised form 9 May 2001; accepted 24 June 2001

Abstract The paper assesses the planning efforts in southwest Saudi Arabia during three stages of development; traditional, transitional and contemporary. The modern planning models were introduced in this area over the last 30 years to deal with rapid economic and social development. The investigation views them as ineffective in preserving the indigenous pattern as well as controlling the urban blight and sprawl especially when comparing the outcome of traditional planning models. With modern models, the traditional village of southwest had a distinguished urban pattern, architectural style and vernacular landscape. The guidance for directing planning efforts should express and respect local economic, climatic, and cultural requirements in the form of policies and guidelines. The planning efforts should preserve physically social values and promote sustainable resources. The planning efforts enhance in a way or other the environmental quality of the built environment, landscape, and remedy the haphazard urban growth and blight, which took place during the transitional stage. The paper proposes a new relationship between a planning and social structure to overcome the unprecedented changes based on a re-evaluation of traditional practices. It argues that a new emphasis on local participation and control might help reverse the current pattern of legitimate planning efforts being subverted by entrenched local interests. It uses the traditional settlements as case examples of past practices and current conditions for directing future planning efforts. r 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: Traditional settlements; Planning guidance; Future planning; Planning methods; Saudi Arabia

1. Introduction The development of settlements in Saudi Arabia could be classified into three stages: traditional, transitional, and contemporary. The traditional development stage is traced from the *Corresponding author. Tel.: +966-1-467-7140; fax: +966-1-467-5775. E-mail address: [email protected] (M.A. Eben Saleh). 0197-3975/01/$ - see front matter r 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved. PII: S 0 1 9 7 - 3 9 7 5 ( 0 1 ) 0 0 0 3 3 - 9

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initial establishment of the settlement in Saudi Arabia until 1932. This stage is characterized by planning on common sense and communal decisions made by the local inhabitants. In addition, this stage involved both physical and socio-economic planning activities that considered the defense of the self-contained community as paramount. The transitional development stage (1932–1970) emerged after the abandonment of self-defense of communities and the rise of the nation with its broad objectives to foster and manage development process in cities and towns. The continuity of development in the traditional settlements of the southwestern Saudi Arabia is observed physically by the sprawled urban growth, which went beyond the defense perimeters. This offered an evidence of great diversity of urbanization patterns. In this stage, Saudi Arabia built its management, economic and physical institutions and opens its arms to the other world. The discovery of oil and the utilization of its income supported the economic base of the society, which was mainly dependent on pastoralism and agriculture. The contemporary development stage can be defined as the period between 1970 and 2005, when the government started the implementation of a series of seven Five Year Development Plans. Every plan was equipped with definite objectives and financial support. The economic development is mainly based on sustainable use of natural resources while social development is dependent on social and religious values. The traditional urban forms were developed and maintained to respond to local, political, social and environmental conditions while transitional and contemporary urban forms suffer from serious problems. Accordingly, the settlements were located near sustainable resources and defensive sites (Figs. 1 and 2). This study examines the planning efforts and its relationship with the overall environmental quality of the built environment and cultural landscape of mountainous communities. This paper argues the

Fig. 1. Map of Saud Arabia shows the southwestern part of Saudi Arabia.

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Fig. 2. Scheme of four geographical zones of the southwestern part of Saudi Arabia with major towns and villages.

consequences of the replacement of traditional planning processes with modern methods. Since the unification of Saudi Arabia in 1932, management of the villages and towns of southwestern Saudi Arabia has shifted from local, tribal-based councils to national central interrelated government agencies. Before the unification of Saudi Arabia in 1932, the tribal communities were largely autonomous in administering and determining matters of their own physical developments through tribal assemblies and village councils. Since Saudi Arabian unification, the settlements grew beyond defensive boundaries on tribal controlled lands. One can observe the low densities in comparison with compact traditional high density (Fig. 3). Since 1950, the indigenous dwellers of the southwest shared in creating new patterns of emigration to other Saudi cities outside the area (Al-Obtaiby, 1989). These emigrants kept social ties with their place of origin. They make frequent visits during vacation and most of them return after retirement. The mid-1970s witnessed the establishment of the Real Estate Development Fund (REDF), which provided interest-free loans to all citizens to construct houses. Most of the residents and emigrants benefitted out of this opportunity. Consequently, the settlements experienced tremendous urban growth (Fig. 4). In addition, because of implementing the Five Year Development Plans on the national level, several huge projects were executed, especially roads, dams, electricity and communication networks (Fig. 5). Today, the concentrated historic form of the settlements has been largely abandoned or modified, as its once-agrarian and pastoral economy has been transformed by a surge in

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Fig. 3. The horizontal expansion of traditional villages characterises the transitional and contemporary periods of development while the vertical expansion dominated during the traditional period.

government employment (Fig. 6). These changes are part of a general pattern in the region where traditional types of environment are fast disappearing. Even where such environments survive, their original residents no longer occupy them, if they are inhabited at all. The paper aims to assess the planning efforts during the three distinguished stages of development; traditional, transitional and contemporary. The investigation uses the traditional settlements as case examples of past practices and current conditions for directing future planning efforts. Though government planners have seriously attempted to develop a centralized planning model that is able to produce the same level of environmental quality as the former local processes, they have been faced by several obstacles (Al-Mobarak, 1993). This investigation proposes that there are important lessons to be learned from a reexamination of traditional planning methods. Such lessons have been all but lost through adherence to standardized national norms based on imported models of planning and architecture (Mubarak, 1995). Revaluation of the traditional experience in dealing with environmental issues may draw new attention to the importance of links between the underlying political, social, economic and religious organization of southwestern communities (Eben Saleh, 1999). To further its analysis, the paper incorporates detailed studies of several settlements in the southwest of Saudi Arabia.

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Fig. 4. Since 1975, the Real Estate Development Fund provides interest-free loan to finance individual as well as commercial housing projects as shown in this photograph.

2. Historical development of planning methods Generally, the history of planning practice in Saudi Arabia has been divided into three main periods: the traditional, the transitional, and the contemporary. Although such a division offers a certain level of convenience, as might be expected of any such partitioning, the actual divisions between eras are not clear-cut. Since incorporation into the state was a gradual process, many traditional practices persisted through the transitional period, particularly in remote areas such as the southwest of Saudi Arabia. Likewise, although many of the development practices that became dominant during the modern period were initiated during the transitional era, their impact on actual physical form was delayed. For example, even though it was first proposed during the 1960s, the implementation of national urban planning policies did not appear until the 1970s when the master plans of towns and cities were approved. The traditional planning and management of settlements and tribal territories depended on a hierarchy of tribal councils and assemblies (Fig. 7). The tribes of the southwest knew and practiced the confederation among the major mother tribes for hundred years. It is a form of state of independent mother tribes. Each mother tribe used to control its designated territory. The designated councils were responsible in establishing and approving tribal laws and put regulatory systems to ensure fair and equitable use of resources and allocation of finance resources. The Jamc

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Fig. 5. One of the dams near Abha, the provincial capital of Asir built to retain rain water for agricultural, purposes.

Al-Shaml is the main assembly for the confederated tribes. It has Sheikh Shaml who heads the assembly of Jamc Al-Shaml. The confederated assembly, which is managed by an elected chief of Assembly, is held periodically. Malaf Al-Qabilah which is the main mother tribe assembly, is held in a predefined place and managed by an elected Sheikh Qabilah. The smallest assembly is Majlis Al-Qaryah; the village council held in the main festival place near the mosque and attended by all village members. It is headed by the Sheikh or Naib, representative of the village in the mother tribe assembly. The decisions in these assemblies are based on consensus and are applicable on every member. Local planners, however, envisage that any program of physical development in the region is influenced by two factors. Firstly, the emergence of specific regional disparities. Secondly, the environmental and socioeconomic problems created by the increased use of cultivable land for settlement purposes. In any scheme of reckoning, 1932 was an extremely important year. The unification of the many disintegrated emirates and sheikhdoms of the Arabian Peninsula were unified into the modern Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. That year brought the system of subsistence agriculture and nomadic herding that had dominated the region’s economic base for millennia to a turning point. Among other things, creation of the unified Saudi State put an end to intertribal raiding, eliminating the last rationale for the traditional fortified villages. Unification opened the way for a new method of

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Fig. 6. The core of traditional settlements was transformed into commercial and business complexes, as this photograph shows, in Abha.

urban spatial development based on national security, socio-political and economic development and an opening to international influences. After unification, Saudi Arabia capitalized on propitious regional and world developments and began a campaign for progress and political consolidation, tempered by Islamic religious principles (Crane, 1978). Among other changes during this period, the state motivated the emergence of formal education, the settlement of nomads, and the exploitation of oil reserves. In addition, the government encouraged the importation of vehicles and agricultural machinery, the introduction of electricity, the improvement of communication, the establishment of health facilities, and the erection of water-supply networks. Generally, the period was one of national political and economic consolidation, accompanied by urban growth and shifts in the organization and distribution of national wealth (Al-Farsy, 1980). Initially, these changes did not appear to conflict with religious beliefs, and the Saudi population accepted the new technologies with a somber attitude (Crane, 1978). However, in many ways the changes brought by an opening of Saudi society arrived too fast and were too dramatic to be comprehended by traditional society. In hindsight, one can define the transitional period as having lasted from 1932 to 1970. In the Saudi southwest one of the greatest changes was the improvement of communications between indigenous communities, and the ability for people to move about more freely. With this

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Fig. 7. Conceptual framework of tribal structure of governance in the southwest tribe before the establishment of Saudi Arabia in 1932.

new freedom, villages and towns began to expand beyond their natural defense perimeters. The introduction of vehicles necessitated the planning of dirt and paved roads between settlements and the establishment of government centers and control points. At settlement level, the planning, design and building methods largely continued to follow outside guidance, especially Municipalities. This in the beginning threatened the continuation of traditional methods in design and construction and lately resulted in the abandonment of traditional methods. The alleviation of urban development pressures allowed alleyways in the settlements to become wider, buildings to move toward detachment from one another and new standardized lots to be larger and more regular. In the southwest of Saudi Arabia the national government also replaced the tribe as the primary agency overseeing the growth of villages and towns by municipality (Al-Awaji, 1989). In the years following unification, the state assumed ownership and control of all previously tribal-owned lands and forests. Moreover, in administrative matters, the power to shape local growth patterns

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became vested in an Amir (appointed governor), instead of a local sheikh. The Sheikh of tribe still plays a role as a symbol of the tribe. The 1960s constituted a profound departure from the millennia-long practices of traditional planning to fast urban growth. The planning and management of urban development in this transitional period possess shortcomings for controlling the urban growth of communities. After 1970, the economic boom ushered in a new era, as new national patterns of migration, occupation appeared, and villages, towns and cities were faced with massive urbanization pressures. Additional social, psychological, economic and political problems were the result of the rapid transformation of formerly rural towns into regional centers. The degree of urbanization in major Saudi cities put a role of secondary cities in the national development (Al-Khedheiri, 1998). In response to such circumstances, the Saudi government started to implement a system of national Five Year Development Planning (Central Planning Organization, 1970; Ministry of Planning, 1975, 1980, 1985, 1990, 1995). In addition to expanding traditional facilities, it undertook construction of major support facilities including housing, roads, power plants, and modern communications and transportation facilities (Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs, 1999). These planning efforts made the government to begin a campaign of modern urban planning. Systematic intervention in urban production under the auspices of a powerful central state established new areas of planning for housing, commercial and industrial uses, and intensive pump-irrigated agriculture. In designing such extensions to traditional society, the authorities sought the help of foreign experts and consultants. In regions such as the southwest of Saudi Arabia, this meant the introduction of imported notions of land subdivision of new urban form that related neither to the traditional built environment nor to the local climate. New schemes of labeled building regulations and zoning emerged in cities and towns. They were established with gridiron patterns of wide streets which came to characterize the rapidly developing suburbs. Building regulations and zoning are in the form of compulsory setbacks and site-coverage limits (Al-Nowaiser, 1996). Such new spatial models fostered construction of freestanding, low-density ‘‘villa’’ dwellings (Fig. 8). For example, the introduction of setbacks allowed adjoining dwellings to open their windows outwards, constantly violating the privacy of open space surrounding dwellings. In a traditional ArabIslamic society where privacy was vitally important, this inhibited the full use of open areas for family activities (Hakim, 1999). The setback provisions exposed the dwelling units to direct sunlight in the summer as well as heat loss in the winter. The villa dwelling type also destroyed the identity of the traditional built environment, and led to the creation of a building stock that has been expensive to maintain and dependent on the faultless functioning of air-conditioning systems. These new structures were impressive looking and were outfitted with such amenities as electricity, telephone service, and water and sewer lines. They soon became a symbol of social prestige, relegating the traditional house, which had generally lacked such amenities, to a lower standard. As successful as these changes to the traditional development pattern may have been in creating an image of modernization, they ultimately lacked understanding of the traditional urban culture of the southwest. In many instances, the new urban forms and spatial arrangements were inadequate to satisfy people’s cultural and climatic needs.

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Fig. 8. The ‘‘Villa’’, a detached form of structure emerged with the appearance of institutioned planning gridiron, pattern of land subdivision in the 1970’s.

3. The integration between planning and social structure Within the general context defined above, the southwestern region represents a rather interesting and curious case study. Since the advent of the modern era in Saudi Arabia in 1932, two features have had a significant impact on the integration between planning and social structure in the region: the relatively swift appearance of urbanization, and the persistence of traditional ties and communal attachments. Before the unification of Saudi Arabia in 1932, the villages in the area exhibited several notable socio-physical and political characteristics. Among these were a considerable degree of political and social autonomy, a dependence on subsistence agriculture and animal husbandry, and the development of traditional systems of land ownership. Largely the reliance on agriculture determined the location and growth of the settlement, as barren lands were brought into production using flood irrigation and terracing. The pattern of growth was perceived as organic, socially informed, and environmentally sustainable. Despite their compelling sites on rocky outcrops and their favorable geographic locations in an area of reliable rainfall, for centuries the settlements of the region had remained small with significant agglomeration. As recently as their origin, their population had consisted of one or several extended families. However, over the subsequent population growth an incessant flow of emigrants from other hamlets might lead to the birth of other distinctive urban expansions as in Alckas village north of Abha, the capital of Asir province (Eben Saleh, 2000).

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Urban structure of certain villages changed due to the attempts of the Ottoman Empire to dominate the highlands of southwest of the Arabian Peninsula in the 19th century which evidenced an increase in fortification in settlements. As in most European towns before industrialization, residents of the villages of the southwest lived and worked in one place. Daily routines were carried out within clearly defined agricultural areas and urban quarters, with which individuals could identify them. Every village contained residential quarters occupied by designated kin-groups. It also contained communal urban elements such as mosques, one of which is the Friday mosque, a treasury, festival space, a weekly market, a cemetery, housing quarters, and warning and defense towers where all kin-groups living in a village share their use and management. Al-Morahab, a large open space adjacent to the Friday mosque served as a multiuse place where inhabitants used to receive the guests of the settlements and perform the tribal and religious festivals. The village provided a strong sense of neighborliness, and kinship and religious ties largely regulated the patterns of behavior. Physical and social space, in other words, was almost identical. Kinship affiliations created relatively homogenous and compact harah (neighborhoods), which, until recently, provided security and a deep sense of community (Fig. 9). In physical terms, these neighborhoods offered the indigenous dweller a human scale within which to establish a uniquely individual space (Hough, 1984).

Fig. 9. The traditional settlements were planned according to the social structure where each kin-group possessed a self contained harah (neighborhood).

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The village built environment was largely the outcome of customary practices based on an accumulation of locally developed experience and the use of locally obtained materials. Concern with security and control over the meager resources placed a premium on space, and houses generally took the form of tower-like structures of two to four stories. Circulation space was minimal; a residual of residential and other built spaces, but it was functionally proportionate to pedestrian flow. Alleyways displayed an irregular pattern, narrow, bent and shaded to provide suitable public open space for the social activities of the local residents and their children. In keeping with Arab-Islamic values, family activities took place in spaces whose privacy could not be diminished by overlooking dwellings (Hakim, 1986). The compact traditional form and the internal organization of space also reflected climatic concerns, since clustered and attached residential units on nonregular lots fed by a sheltered street network contributed to a benign climate in both summer and winter (Talib, 1984). In such an environment, endogamy and kinship rather than land prices sorted inhabitants, and the limits of technology and transportation impeded sprawl. Patterns of land ownership were keys to village identity. Land ownership fell into several types in the southwest villages. According to Islamic principles, a private claim could be established to barren, unproductive land by sweeping water over it and so reclaiming it for agricultural purposes (Joma, 1991). Nevertheless, individual title could also be acquired as a result of a personal grant, inheritance, or a business transaction between kin-group members (Al-Obtaiby, 1989). However, it was the extensive system of public-owned lands that established the most crucial link between individual villagers and the community. In addition to the open spaces, paths, and public buildings within the town, common property including outlying lands that could be used to gather wood, pasture animals, or exploit other natural resources. There were also common tribal territories that could be used for seasonal agriculture, lumbering, and pasture, the boundaries of which shifted according to treaties (Eben Saleh, 1996). According to the traditional planning method, the uses of village lands were not determined according to a preconceived plan, with distinct uses and a program of implementation. Rather, they evolved over time through consensus in response to individual need. The mechanism of consensus played an important role in binding villagers to the local social and political structure. Among other things, it allowed for a level of political control and influence that was vital to sustain ecological balance and wise patterns of natural-resource management in and around the settlement. Although it was not written out, the village planning system was overseen by Al-sheikh, (the village chief) or Al-Naib, the representative of the village in the tribal assembly. The sheikh or naib had full power to implement agreed-upon environmental rules, and to imprison, punish, banish or fine villagers guilty of infractions. He also had the right to grant common land to any member of the community, or to a new ally, and the legality of any land reclamation effort was subject to his approval. In the administration of the village, a supporting staff ranging between 4 and 8 assisted the sheikh or naib people who equally represented the moieties living in the village. These varying number were divided between four–eight persons as settlement council (al-jamacah), and similar number of persons acts as advisory board who oversaw more technical matters related to water, natural environment, weekly market and urban affairs. Village council members were generally the patriarchal heads of extended families, and they served as the point of contact between clan groups and the village. The members of the advisory board were appointed by the council to form

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equal groups, known as qabeal (guarantors). One qabeal was placed in charge of the agricultural environment. Among his duties was the management of rainwater to guarantee a fair distribution of this precious resource to all villagers without causing erosion of common lands. A second qabeal was placed in charge of the natural landscape, especially forest and grazing lands. He was charged with reporting instances of misconduct to the settlement council, proposing improvements to common lands, and preventing hazards. A third qabeal was put in charge of running the village’s weekly market and handling its external affairs. In addition, a fourth qabeal was placed in charge of collecting Al-coshr, (the tithe). Al-coshr is calculated as one-tenth of each family’s harvest, which stored and either sold or distributed among the households. To support such planning efforts, the people of each village developed such indigenous financing systems. In addition to the tithes, proceeds from fines were also stored in the treasury, as were funds earned by the community as a whole. All assets stored in the treasury were considered community wealth to be used to pay joint liabilities among tribal members. Access to the treasury was carefully regulated. The main door and the lock to the safe inside each required separate keys to open. Each kin-group lived in a village was represented by two of its members who possessed these keys. The opening of the safe required the presence of all members and the treasury secretary (Al-ameen or Al-wakil), who was appointed by the sheikh or naib. According to oral history, important development decisions related to the village were thoroughly discussed on site and decisions made in the presence of the sheikh, the settlement council, and the advisory board (Eben Saleh, 1996). Through the settlement council, the budget of any project would then be decided and approved by the sheikh or naib. The sheikh or naib would then officially release money from the treasury for studies, consultations, and execution of work or aid for other villages. The appropriate team of guarantors would oversee the spending of the money according to the nature of the job. The traditional settlements of southwestern Saudi Arabia shared the existence of several communal public buildings and spaces. For example Al-micshar, or single-floor building located in visually controlled site near Al-Morahab, the festival space or the Friday Mosque. Al-Morahab acts as the main public space in the village where most of social activities take place (Fig. 10). The inhabitants of every village share the usage of the Festival space, and the Friday and daily Mosques too. The mosques are meeting places where people see each other on daily, weekly or seasonal basis. Important issues concerning the village are mostly discussed after the Friday prayer. People or kin-groups share also the graveyard to bury their dead in an open but sacred defined space known as Al-Majanah, the cemetery.

4. Problems of modern planning in the villages of southwest The earliest extension plan for villages which resulted in sprawl was detected after 1932, the date which witnessed the establishment of Modern Saudi Arabia. This happened when the villages started to expand beyond the defense perimeter. According to oral history, the early horizontal expansions to the villages were prepared on public lands by the designated village councils. Succeeding urban growth took place on private lands. The earliest involvement of the established state in planning emerged with the opening of five regional planning offices. The southwest was annexed into the western region. Government was involved in planning as long as there were any

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Fig. 10. Al-Morahab is the most important urban space in each village or town near the Friday Mosque where villagers meet and receive community guests. It is usually adjacent to the Friday Mosque.

problem raised by any tribal member or the development needs either grant or loan from any government agency. Early extensions of villages represented the first attempt of physical planning that took into account the geographic, demographic and human features of the village and adjacent communities. As elsewhere in the Kingdom, the villages of the southwest had experienced a building boom after 1975 that brought new land use patterns and an unprecedented horizontal expansion of the villages. The village plan shows the main paved traffic streets and proposed other new roads. It outlines the paths for necessary infrastructure and public facilities. It

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proposes future residential development along the contours of the Wadis and mountains. Other schemes later propose the conservation and elaboration of certain environmental and aesthetic features of the village and environs. Several plans were proposed to protect traditional forest areas and develop these into public parks. Still other plans display a concern for protecting natural and traditional sites, open spaces, and public buildings and providing an inventory of valuable trees. While well intentioned, the plans of villages have largely remained unrealized and thus have failed to curb the haphazard and unguided urban growth of the villages. The failure derives both from the swift and extensive nature of urbanization, which has rendered plans obsolete soon after they have been proposed, and from the persistence of personal and communal loyalties, which has interfered with their implementation. The pace of urbanization, in other words, has clearly outstripped whatever institutional agencies of social control exist. The social structure once served as a source of communal solidarity, providing much-needed interpersonal support, it now accounts for much of the deficiency in civility and the erosion of public and national consciousness (Garba & Al-Mubaiyedh, 1999). In a narrow, physical sense, therefore, planning may seem only to involve such issues as physical form, spatial arrangement of urban functions, and control and allocation of land. Nevertheless, in a broader sense, it also represents a deliberate effort to order the environment toward the realization of certain goals. It is here where modern notions of land use have collided with a ‘‘traditional’’ socio-cultural milieu in which values and loyalties were once expected to militate against such outside control. Today, the very elements of the social structure which previously provided sources of viability and solidarityFsuch as kinship and communal loyalties, patron-client networks, and other primordial attachmentsFare now opposed to ‘‘rational’’ strategies for controlling and allocating resources. While inhabitants of the villages and town continue to derive tangible benefits from cultivating such ‘‘traditional’’ ties, these same ties now impede or distort urban planning and zoning efforts. In other words, norms, which enable in some respects, disable in others. All these factors have impeded the government’s ability to implement master plans or local zoning ordinances. Some steps have recently been taken to address enforcement aspects of this problem. By tightening control over building permits, architectural aesthetics, and land parcellization, newer legislation has been moderately successful in closing earlier gaps inherent by the adoption of new building designs and techniques. The combination of factors above has created a persisting discrepancy in the villages of the southwest between planning ordinances and actual behavior and spatial patterns. There has never been a shortage of plans for the village but none of these schemes has ever been effectively implemented. Even when a plan is officially adopted, its concrete aspects are usually violated. In all human societies, even the most civic and orderly, plan and reality rarely converge. However, in the villages of the southwest, the gap between audacious planning and executive ineffectiveness is remarkably wide, and it has continued to widen.

5. Changes in leadership in planning The discussion of changes in leadership in planning points to one of the main differences between the mechanisms for dealing with issues of land use in traditional and modern times

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through established social or political organization. The primary concern of any organization, social or political is the interest of each village and its own preservation within the established system of governance since societies tend to seek and follow the established rule of the leadership. Leadership is viewed as a set of functions through which the group coordinates the activities of its individuals. The leader occupies an elevated status within a group, in most cases because of prominent personal qualities. His duties consist of decision-making, arbitration, maintaining control, and meting out rewards and punishments. The essential link in this chain is the notion of legitimacy. Authority can be described as a legitimate right to exercise power within a social organization (Al-Hathloul, 1996). To understand the mechanisms of traditional or modern planning in the villages of the southwest, one must examine the nature of leadership in either the traditional tribal culture or central system of governance. The traditional culture was composed of mother tribes. Each tribe is composed of clans, which were largely self-sufficient and equal in social status and power. Such groups were not highly specialized or interdependent, and each existed and acted with relative autonomy. Within such a ‘‘segmental’’ social structure, subtribes claimed the primary allegiance of individuals, despite recognition that there also needed to be some sort of interband cooperation. Local stability was essential to preserve the existing form of the society. As each subunit acted to protect its own interests and attain its own goals, it almost inevitably came into conflict with other subunits, and it was threatened constantly with its own internal disintegration unless it could cope with conflict. The organizing principle of village society was the concept of kinship and lineage. The sheikh or naib did not belong to a particular moiety; rather, his election or appointment depended on circumstance, background and personality. Due to his numerous family’s ties with all the tribesmen, the sheikh or naib also served as a sort of patriarch, a symbol of the tribe. The respect of his authority in the village was expressed in feelings of veneration and awe toward him, and people identified themselves as members of a tribe or subtribe by accepting his rule. In return, the sheikh or naib would ensure peace and order. A leader derives status from followers, who accord or withdraw legitimacy based on group consent. In addition, to guard against transgressions in the use of his power, the governed tried to impose limits on the sheikh or naib use of power by means of ‘‘formal institutions.’’ As already described, the most important of these in the southwest was the village council, the members of which were the heads of the major lineage’s in the village. Although these men presumably acted independently, they also needed to maintain their positions of respect within the extended family structures they represented. Thus, although the sheikh or naib exercised control on a day-to-day basis, ultimate control was believed to rest in some form of popular assembly. The traditional system thus emphasized the participation of people both in solving their own problems and in validating the legitimacy of their leaders’ authority. Within this framework, one of the main purposes of traditional planning and land use decision-making was to bind members of the community to one another in an interlinking system of responsibilities. The traditional system also created a hierarchy of preeminent persons who were supposed to intercede in cases of conflict, and who were personally responsible for the redressing of wrongs between individuals. By contrast, modern leadership has been based on much less tangible associations between people and government. For example, whereas the tribal system of planning emphasized intimate knowledge of local conditions, modern methods have concentrated authority in national

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institutions (Mashabi, 1995). The physical planning is a direct response to local necessities and professionalism. It is an abstractly defined desire to encourage the highest level of involvement among economic and social well being. Such a modern framework for town planning in Saudi Arabia emerged with the establishment of the Council of Ministers in 1953. The Municipalities Department was established in 1958. In 1962 this department was transformed into the Deputy Ministry of the Interior for Municipal Affairs, within which a Directorate General of Town Planning was specifically charged with preparing local plans. To coordinate this process, a central commission of planning was also established in 1963 as a higher council formed of representatives of interested ministries. In 1975, in a further effort at consolidation, the Saudi government transformed the Deputy Ministry of the Interior for Municipal Affairs into an independent government agency, the Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs (MOMRA). MOMRA is structured into interrelated bodies of Deputy Ministries where each of them is concerned with specific planning tasks (Fig. 11). Modern town planning began with the production of master plans for some towns and villages in the Kingdom. These plans were initially prepared by independent consultants or the regional offices of the Deputy Ministry for Town Planning (DMTP) which belongs to the Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs (MOMRA) to the benefit of designated government agency or individuals. The approval of physical plans is contingent to DMTP. The master plans established building densities and permitted uses for various zones within villages, towns and cities (and on

Fig. 11. Conceptual framework of MOMRA structure in every region of Saudi Arabia.

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their outskirts), set locations for industry and governmental centers, and established protected zones near sensitive areas such as beaches, woods, and natural areas. Largely based on these master plans, a standard procedure for implementation of physical development emerged locally. In this area, the planning first involves a survey of the whole area in need of planning by the pertinent municipality, indicating the location of fixed landmarks such as paths, houses, farms and topographical features. This survey is then sent to the regional office of the Directorate of Municipal and Rural Affairs (DMRA). The DMRA, the concerned planning agency conducts the process of planning and subdivision according to the survey and produces a scheme through either their staff or an independent consultant. Afterwards, the plot is sent from DMRA to the appropriate municipality who conducted the initial survey as a draft, and the municipality begins to implement it on site. If this process reveals any problems that might prevent final plan implementation, a replanning may be conducted or the original plan may be sent to MOMRA for higher approval. The final approval of the plot plan is sent to the associated court near the site to issue ownership deeds to individual parcels. Lots created according to an approved subdivision plan are given priority for extensions of local infrastructure and services such as electricity, telephone, and water lines. This process is reported by municipal employees as a successful attempt to assure the ownership of the land and protect it from illegal occupation (Fig. 12). Such procedures are also applied in the case of public land prepared for the distribution as residential lots or for other development. In relation to villages without municipalities, this would first involve a request from the municipality of adjacent town to the village for a list of people in need of residential lots. In Saudi Arabia, planned public lands are either granted or sold to individuals or groups for development. In most cases, lands, which are prepared for residential purposes, are distributed to people as grants for residents. This solved the problem of housing in most communities in Saudi Arabia. The concerned municipality should prepare a list of beneficiaries. This list would then be sent to the Real Estate Development Fund (REDF) to check whether such individuals had been granted loans elsewhere in the Kingdom. After receiving a response from the REDF, the municipality would recategorize the request based on the eligibility of individuals for grants, and send the list with a proposed assignment of subdivision lots to MOMRA for approval. Lands would be distributed by means of a ballot performed by a municipal committee and tribal members after MOMRA approval.

6. Concluding remarksFa guidance for future planning efforts In hindsight, it is possible to see today how planning problems arose in the modern era. When modern designs, amenities and technologies (most importantly the car) were introduced to rural villages, traditional planning principles were not modified to accommodate the changed situation. Instead, government agencies, consultants, and the public thought foreign planning principles and regulations should be brought in with the amenities. At the time, nearly everyone involved believed that the traditional Saudi built environment would not suit or accommodate modernization, and that the people would soon be able to adopt a new life-style.

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Fig. 12. A recent approved land subdivision of public land by MOMRA is ready for distribution for residential purposes.

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The explosion in centralized planning efforts necessitated the establishment of departments for regional and urban planning within ministries, which had hitherto dealt primarily with national issues. However, regional development plans and local master plans cannot be effective unless they are based on a clear insight into local spatial processes, such as migratory movements and the growth of some regions and the stagnation of others. In other words, planners require clear ideas why urban growth should be slowed in certain areas and promoted in others, why new employment should be promoted in backward regions, and how to effectively propagate information on new agricultural techniques among rural populations. The discussion above offers a starting point from which to examine the role of national planners, planning consultants in Saudi Arabia, and put guidance for directing future planning efforts. The results of the planning activities show how problematic and difficult it is to work in such a context. In tribal society, the professionals are mostly unable to convince tribal members of the validity of their recommendations. However, it has often not been the planner who was responsible for a planning failure. Frequently, the real cause has been the underlying tribal matters associated with the overoptimistic government objectives. Even if planners and competent national and regional authorities are able to agree on planning methods and objectives, difficulties may also arise out of misreading of local conditions, leading to national statuary provisions that are impossible to implement. One implication of this situation is that planners may need to change the conception of their own role, and move toward planning efforts that give greater priority to plan realization. In other words, they must strive for genuinely practicable plans by giving greater weight to information on the planning area and its environment, and by better analyzing the political, economic and administrative factors governing plan implementation. A further step might be for planners to move beyond plan development and become directly involved in plan implementation, enabling a more intensive interaction between planners, politicians and citizens. In such a system, the planner would serve less as a simple agent to achieve politicoadministrative objectives, but as a mediator between national political objectives and local realities. Another key to plan effectiveness may be to encourage a greater degree of local participation and control in the planning process. It is here where the above discussion of traditional planning methods in traditional villages may have the most bearing. For, as this paper has shown, though limited by a lack of continuing, established political structure, the former mechanisms of tribal spatial planning did establish a hierarchy of political organization and responsibility that offered sufficient mechanisms for implementation. Clear, open discussion at tribal assemblies also led to practicable ideas and provided a means for building consensus and accountability. This led to the development of a harmonious built environment of great distinction, something, which appears to have been lost in recent years. In the traditional method, such insight arrived from the bottom up approach in planning. Tribal and subtribal (village) planning also provided a consistent approach to local and regional development that enabled effective enforcement of planning provisions. In this system, the confederation assembly of the mother tribe limited its authority to strategic policies, especially defense and finance. At the next level, the tribal assembly limited its power to such issues as allocation of weekly market locations, preservation of grazing lands, and allocation of necessary funds. However, the social integration of each village into its region was ensured through

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successive assemblies among members of the village, the tribe and the tribal confederation. In addition, such assemblies were able to prevent such problems as unhealthy migratory trends, resource overuse, and the development of inequitable regional economic advantages. By contrast, in the state development model as a national planning has been considered the most prestigious level, and planning procedures have moved downward to the regional and local levels. National planning was thought to be the simplest way of ensuring the attainment of broad development objectives. However, the control and implementation of planning from the top down requires constant oversight, monitoring and enforcement, which the fragmented nature of local social structures appears to work against. In hindsight, it is now evident that the adoption of foreign planning methods in the modern era was also based on the false view that there is a universal, uniform development process, which is valid for all regions in the country. One of the main reasons for adopting townplanning instruments from the industrial countries was that they had gained a broad experience in their use. However, attitudes toward development are not simply neutral codes, and the implementation of copied principles and regulations has meant imposing an alien ideology and legal system on the Saudi populace. By contrast, the traditional built environment was planned and designed according to the cultural and social values of its residents. These principles were developed over hundreds of years of tribal self-management and were transferred from one generation to another. In effect, the traditional built environment was the product of a long series of trial-and-error experience and embodied the wisdom of generations. As planners, architects, government officials, and the public began to recognize the social and climatic problems created by imported forms and building regulations, interest has developed in ways to reestablish a harmonious link between the past and the present. Reevaluation of such older systems has now brought the recognition that what may have been needed 25 years ago was not the total replacement of traditional planning principles in the name of modernization and urbanization, but an improvement of local methods and guidelines to cope with the introduction of modern amenities. The goal of developing such a third direction of planning today would be to achieve the positive aspects of both traditional and contemporary planning. One might envision this as some form of linkage between contemporary tools and local participatory processes. The need for a revived planning strategy based on traditional experiences is now a recognized direction in planning. One of its aims is to allow the local cultural environment and climate of Saudi Arabia to receive contemporary expression in terms of both urban and architectural form. But revived traditional planning is still under development and research, and it has not yet reached the form of specific planning principles and regulations which could be adopted and implemented by municipalities. Although some recent urban schemes by MOMRA have made the first attempt in this direction, it has been implemented only in small-scale private projects such as residences or in small housing projects for targeted groups (Fig. 13).

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