ABSTRACT OF RESEARCHES INCLUDING THERAPEUTIC ENVIRONMENT, CULTURAL LANDSCAPE AND WOOD CARVING IN VERNACULAR ENVIRONMENT
PROSPECTS OF LANDSCAPE DEVELOPMENT IN SAUDI ARABIA
Ismail Said
School of Environmental Design, Faculty of Engineering
King Abdulaziz University, P.O Box 9027,
Jeddah, 21413, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
The desert environment of Saudi Arabian's cities is fast changing into green and more comfortable environment. This is due to the landscape development, which accelerated in the First to Fourth Five-Year Development Plans 1970-1990. The government of Saudi Arabia has spent enormously on landscape projects to transform he barren and dry conditions to green-oasis environment in the urban centers. The greening of the cities is also supplementing by establishment of private, residential gardens. This establishment is possible due to cheap water supply from the municipality for domestic uses.
The landscape development can be categorized into seven land uses, namely, vehicular way, residential, commercial, institutional, industrial, park and recreation, and greenbelt. Both soft and hard landscape elements are used for the construction of the landscape projects in the land uses. Sub-tropical and tropical plants are planted for the greening, shading and decorating effects in the cities. Foreign professionals and semi-skill laborers mostly do the landscape works. The professionals may include landscape architects, urban planners, horticulturists and nurserymen whom are mostly Americans, Canadians and Western Europeans.
The research is conducted by discussing the environmental and social-cultural factors, which directly influenced the landscape establishment. The discussion gives the potentials and constraints for landscape design and planning, planting and maintenance. Developed landscape projects in the major cities are surveyed and analyzed to determine the regulations and by-laws, which controlled the landscape development. The survey helped to discover the planting techniques for arid environment, plant species used for the landscape works, and prospect of landscape industry in Saudi Arabia in Fifth-Five-Year Development Plan 1990-1995.
It is determined that the landscape industry in Saudi Arabia is continuously expanding which resulted by rapid expansion of urban centers. The future landscape market is a promising but a competitive sector for Malaysian professionals and businessman. Provision of high quality services and products is the step to gain the competitive edge in the industry.