The common ground for sustainable urbanism in the case of Doha

Abstract

Doha, like most of the Gulf States' cities, has evolved dramatically to the global city model due to the oil economy, thereby experiencing a massive urban evolution and creating mega urban development projects that are inattentive to sustainability. Creating mega projects reflects different urban trends to fulfill the sustainable agenda. Sustainability, as a definition, is still vague, but the term survived the test of time. A large number of studies have conducted research on cities and how to change the development path to a more sustainable one. But sustainable urbanism cannot be reached if there is no standard definition of sustainability between different key players involved in the urbanization process. Between strategy and implementation, there is an apparent gap because there is no standard definition for sustainable urbanism. Recently, in Doha, some urban development has taken place, which claims to be viable. This study aims to evaluate these models through critical observation and analysis of the urban form and characteristic of these developments. It questions the level of applicability of such models to the context of Doha, and its urban revitalization process. First, the study documents the milestones of the sustainable urbanism strategy of Doha. Second, it analyzes key projects and how sustainable urbanism was implemented. In this study, four projects are used to compare the sustainable urbanism definition about strategy and implementation process. The aim of this paper is to highlight a common definition of sustainable urbanism for Doha, highlighting the challenges of policy and implementation. Finally, it compares the policy with the application to a more standard definition of sustainable urbanism appropriate to the Doha context. The paper argues that creating a common urban sustainability definition will narrow the gap between implementation and strategy. It concludes with recommendation guidelines to repost sustainable urbanism in the case of Doha.