Importance of humanizing urban environment

Prince Abdul Aziz bin Mohammad bin Ayyaf has recently published a book titled “Strengthening Human Dimension In Urban Work — Riyadh City as a Model.” In this book, he has discussed urban planning in general through professional performance of municipalities. In particular, the author talked about the human aspect in town planning. The idea simply means that construction work should take the human factor into consideration in a way that creates mutual relation between man and his surroundings. This aspect, he believes, is what characterizes Riyadh city to the extent that makes it an advanced model in the whole world. In fact, the city couldn’t attain this status without the insight of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman when he served as emir of Riyadh region for about four decades. During those long years, the King (then emir) wasn’t simply a public servant but was a careful planner who left huge imprints on every part of the capital city. Riyadh is a large modern city and the Kingdom’s political center. It is expanding horizontally to cope with the increasing population and demands of modernization. Planners wanted it to emerge as a problem-free city in future. This doesn’t mean that there are no problems but careful planning made them solvable. This fact is what Prince Ayyaf has stressed in his book, and without this pre-planning it would have been impossible to launch the Riyadh underground project, which aims to solve traffic congestion in the city. This book contains details and accurate information about the city. What makes it so important is because the author is no stranger to the city. He is the one who knows it very well since he was its mayor. It is a unique and marvelous work and a must-read for anyone who wants to know Riyadh city.