Transformative Training Course on Sustainable Urban Planning in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Ulrich Graute • 17 May 2022

Trainings team


Frank D’hondt (Athens),  Ulrich Graute (Berlin) & Youssef Diab (Paris) in cooperation with Ayman El-Hefnawi and Halima Mrabti of UN-Habitat in Riyadh



   Introduction and Objectives

The United Nations Human Settlements Programme, UN-Habitat, is the agency for human settlements. It is mandated by the UN General Assembly to promote socially and environmentally sustainable towns and cities with the goal of providing adequate shelter for all. UN-Habitat office in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) has been working in several projects to support the UN-Habitat mandates and to boost the implementation of the NUA and the SDGs especially goal 11 as well as support the implementation of the Saudi Vision 2030 and its different programs that corresponds with the mandate of UN-Habitat. The Saudi Arabia Office is affiliated to The Regional Office of Arab States (ROAS), which is responsible for the implementation of the UN Habitat Work Programme at Regional and at Country level for all domains of change under the UN-Habitat Strategic Plan (2020-2023). The KSA country programmes and projects are establishing a wide program to enhance UN-Habitat's capacity of delivery at the country level.


UN-Habitat has established a historical strong relationship with the Ministry of Municipalities, Rural Affairs and Housing (MOMRAH) through the 6 years successful program of the Future Saudi Cities Program (FSCP). Following this project, UN-Habitat jointly with UNDP have signed a two years new project titled “Support for National Spatial Strategy 2030 in Saudi Arabia”. This project has been designed to boost the capacity of the Government to achieve the objectives of the National Spatial Strategy (NSS) along with their alignment with the Vision 2030. The project envisages the support to the NSS implementation Office established inside the deputyship of town planning with specific focus on the following outcomes:


  • Improved capacity for the Implementation of the National Spatial Strategy (NSS) 2030;
  • Improved access to urban data between line ministries in NSS 2030 platform;
  • Improved localizing sustainable urban development at national, regional and local authorities.


In addition to these outputs, the project is designed to provide advisory services in novel areas of interest to the urban planning and management sector. The project, based on available budget, will provide technical assistance to various activities operated within the deputyship of Town Planning including the emerging urban planning issues within the deputyship mandate. Finally, the project will be mostly a follow up building on the lessons of the Future Saudi Cities Programme (FSCP) to enhance the urban planning practice in Saudi Arabia at national, regional and local levels.


The service delivery by the three training experts is mainly to support the above project, especially Outcome (3) on “Improved localizing sustainable urban development at national, regional and local authorities”, which is the responsibility of UN-Habitat.


The following two training modules - the be delivered in Riyadh, KSA - shall be provided for the “Sustainable and Inclusive Urban Development” thematic package: 

  1. Integrated Urban Spatial Planning;
  2. Inclusive & interactive Planning Processes.


UN-Habitat and MOMRAH jointly agreed upon following dates for the two training modules:

  • Module 1: Sunday 5th to Thursday 9th of June
  • Module 2: Sunday 19th to Thursday 23th of June


Each module will entail both a theoretical part, aimed at building in depth conceptual understanding, and a practical part, aimed at equipping the audience with knowledge of specific tools, methods and/or protocols to enable the turning of theoretical knowledge into actions (check Annex).


The number of participants attending both Modules will be between 25-30 Participants.


The Terms of Reference of the Training Service includes the table below:




2.   Introduction of the key trainers


The Training Course will be prepared and conducted by:


Msc. Frank J. D’hondt


As Director of the Territorial Capital Institute, Frank has a proven track record in worldwide capacity building and training of local, regional, and national government officials to better perform their ‘sustainability planning’ objectives or tasks at hand, as well to engage and train urban and rural communities in the planning process and system at stake in their countries. Working experiences include Kosovo, Palestine, Afghanistan, East-Timor, China, Laos, Thailand, the Caribbean and West and East-Africa (Somalia). As voluntary Secretary General of ISOCARP (non-profit organization), Frank engages with public and private institutions seeking capacity building and training. Frank is also a recurrent ‘special matter expert’ to assess UAE public entities (from municipal to federal level) as part of the UAE Excellence Award Programme – most recently assessing the UAE Ministries of Housing, Urban Planning, Infrastructure, Energy, Environment and Climate Change. Frank is from Belgium but lives in Athens, Greece – within good reach of Riyadh. 



Dr. Ulrich Graute


Ulrich Graute is a social scientist, urban and regional development expert and has a keen interest in national and international policies for urban and regional development to achieve resilience and sustainable development. He is familiar with peer-to-peer learning, leadership advisory, advocacy and blogs on governance. Ulrich Graute has a strong record working in Saudi Arabia since 2008 with UNDESA, UN-Habitat and Oliver Wyman. His cooperation with the Ministry of Economy and Planning and with MOMRAH covered subjects like the more traditional Five Year Planning of the past. He was international editor and co-author of the study ‘Review of Regional Planning in Saudi Arabia’ and a first five days transformational training for urban planners in Riyadh. He is together with Frank D’hondt author of the UN Handbook ‘International Guidelines on Urban and Territorial Planning’ (IG-UTP, 2018). In 2020 Ulrich co-chaired a Private Sector Workshop on the ‘KSA Sustainability Roadmap - The Way Forward to Achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGS) organized by the Ministry of Economy and Planning and Oliver Wyman. Ulrich is Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences, AcSS (UK) and Member of the Scientific Committee of ISOCARP.



Prof. Youssef Diab


Youssef Diab is a Professor of Urban Sustainable Planning in the University Gustave Eiffel in France. He is also in charge of prospective and Chairs development in the EIVP: Ecole des Ingénieurs de la Ville de Paris. A graduate school dedicated to urban and municipal engineering. This school is attached to the city of Paris and affiliated to the University Gustave Eiffel. He is also involved in graduate and applied research programs dedicated to urban Engineering in other European, Asian, Middle Eastern, and North American universities and international organizations. He was in charge for the city of Paris of the prospective research program: PARIS 2030. 


This pictures was taken at a first UN-Habitat "Training Programme on the International Guidelines on Urban and Territorial Planning" 7-11 January 2018, Ryadh. The training team at the time included Remy Sietcheping, Andrea Oyuela and Ulrich Graute.

Policies and Governance for Resilient and Sustainable Cities and Regions

Urban Sprawl as part of the solution for the affordable housing crisis in the USA?!

by Ulrich Graute • 14 April 2025
None of the following supports the idea that urban sprawl is required or even helpful to build sustainable cities. However, it is argued that it may be part of the solution for the crisis of affordable housing in many countries of the world. With this post, I would like to encourage a debate, eg, at the 61st ISOCARP World Planning Congress #WPC61 on 1-4 December 2025 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. In 1976 and alarmed by rapid and uncontrolled urban growth, particularly in the developing world, the UN General Assembly called for the First United Nations Conference on Human Settlements (Habitat I) addressing the challenges and future of human settlements. Housing remained at the focus of the United Nations Human Settlement Programme UN-Habitat ever since, and this was reconfirmed at Habitat III in Quito 2016. The New Urban Agenda recognizes and promotes a "right to the city," meaning the right of all inhabitants to have equal access to the benefits and opportunities that cities offer. It emphasizes a vision where urban spaces are designed and used collectively for the benefit of all, including those in informal settlements. Yes a vision, but overall, the Agenda is not very strategic and invites more to raising picking instead of integrated problem solving. Meanwhile, cities keep struggling to cope with fast urbanization, migration and growing demand for larger apartments. Urban sprawl is criticized since the 1950s and 60s because of its large demand for land. No densely populated urban areas have higher costs for the water, energy and transportation grid. In addition, developers often focus on profitable housing development while they don’t care for urban infrastructure, public spaces, schools etc. The New Urban Agenda promotes urban density as a key strategy for sustainable and efficient urban development but that doesn’t help those who a looking for housing now. Conor Dougherty is the author of the book Golden Gates: The Housing Crisis and a Reckoning for the American Dream published on 10 April 2025 in the New York Times the article “Why America Should Sprawl. The word has become an epithet for garish, reckless growth — but to fix the housing crisis, the country needs more of it.” He doesn’t make any effort to paint urban sprawl in rosy colors. Instead, he describes how eg in Princeton, Texas, the nation’s third-fastest-growing city, infrastructure has struggled to keep up with growth. He analyzes how difficult and slow-moving densification efforts in cities are and states, “Even if all the regulatory restraints were removed tomorrow, developers couldn’t find enough land to satisfy America’s housing needs inside established areas. Consequently, much of the nation’s housing growth has moved to states in the South and Southwest, where a surplus of open land and willingness to sprawl has turned the Sun Belt into a kind of national sponge that sops up housing demand from higher-cost cities. The largest metro areas there have about 20 percent of the nation’s population, but over the past five years they have built 42 percent of the nation’s new single-family homes, according to a recent report by Cullum Clark, an economist at the George W. Bush Institute, a research center in Dallas.” For instance, Celina, Texas (picture), has 54,000 residents, compared with 8,000 just a decade ago, and the population is projected to hit 110,000 by 2030. The lack of urbane infrastructure, employment, greenery, and community is striking, but people keep coming because of affordability. While planners and others prefer denser and walkable neighbourhoods like 15-minute-cities, the money to build related infrastructure in addition to houses is often missing or would reduce affordability. A dilemma. There are good reasons to criticize the trend described for the US by Conor Dougherty, but it provides a chance to attain affordable housing for people who cannot find it elsewhere. And the history of these satellite towns has demonstrated that the missing infrastructure, employment and community can be added lateron. It seems, urban sprawl is not the solution, but it might be part of the solution, isn’t it? Let's discuss this here or later on other occasions, like eg the 61st ISOCARP World Planning Congress 'Cities & Regions in Action: Planning Pathways to Resilience and Quality of Life 1-4 December 2025, in Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia #WPC61. Reference: Why America Should Sprawl. The word has become an epithet for garish, reckless growth — but to fix the housing crisis, the country needs more of it. By Conor Dougherty. The New York Times, April 10, 2025 https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/10/magazine/suburban-sprawl-texas.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

We need the United Nations to be part of the solution, not of the problem

by Ulrich Graute • 8 March 2025
Picture: UN photo

Anatomy of an AI System

by Ulrich Graute • 25 February 2025
Click to see the map in the full scale or download map in pdf format here https://anatomyof.ai/img/ai-anatomy-map.pdf.

About the challenge of providing advice on governance and development in times of disruption and transition

by Ulrich Graute • 22 February 2025
About the challenge of providing advice on governance and development in times of disruption and transition (English with German captatio ns) Deutsch: Ulrich spricht darüber, wie es ist, in Zeiten von Umbruch, Wandel und vielfachen Krisen als erfahrener Berater zu arbeiten. Obwohl die Situation nicht einfach ist, kann man daraus auch Chancen für effizientere Institutionen und Unternehmen sehen. Erfahrung und Flexibilität sind dabei wichtig, um neue Wege zu finden. English: Ulrich talks about working as an experienced consultant in times of upheaval, change, and multiple crises. Although the situation is not easy, we can also see opportunities for more efficient institutions and companies. Experience and flexibility are important to find new pathways.

Urban politics, planning and economy in the Global South in times of fast developing AI

by Ulrich Graute • 12 February 2025
"The development of highly capable AI is likely to be the biggest event in human history. The world must act decisively to ensure it is not the last event in human history. This conference, and the cooperative spirit of the AI Summit series, give me hope; but we must turn hope into action, soon, if there is to be a future we would want our children to live in." Professor Stuart Russell, IASEAI President and Distinguished Professor of Computer Science at the University of California, Berkeley Please join me on 13 February 2025 at ARCS 9.0 for my keynote on 'Urban politics, planning, and economy in the Global South in times of fast developing AI' The two weeks before my conference presentation were full of dynamics in the field of AI, its politics, and development. First came the launch of the 500 billion US$ Stargate Project in the USA, followed by the launch of the Chinese open-source large language model (LLM) DeepSeek. On 6 February the International Association for Safe & Ethical AI held its inaugural conference in Paris, France. Prominent AI scientists including Stuart Russel and the 2024 Physics Nobel Laureate Geoffrey Hinton called for international cooperation to ensure safe and ethical artificial intelligence. On 10 and 11 February 2025, France co-chaired by India hosted the Artificial Intelligence (AI) Action Summit in Paris. The speeches by Heads of State and Government including the President of France, the Prime Minister of India, the President of the EU Commission, and the US Vice President gave the impression of how different countries of the world try to position themselves in a race for AI leadership. Urban politics, planning, and economy, not only in the Global South, need longer-term frameworks. How should digital transformation and urban planning be approached in cities facing multiple crises and the new wave of AI technological innovation? The latter is according to the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and others unprecedented in scale and speed but it is expected to affect all spheres of life. ARCS 9.0 schedule and Zoom link for Inaugural, plenaries and Valedictory. Date - 13th Feb to 15th Feb 2025 Join Zoom Meeting https://zoom.us/j/95336599575?pwd=NExxgf8gBoubEfKRhhtbalM1ZYjQph.1 Meeting ID: 953 3659 9575

The 500 bn US$ Stargate Project - Places seem to matter more, Urban Planning and AI governance less or not at all

by Ulrich Graute • 22 January 2025
Source of the picture OpenAI: https://openai.com/index/announcing-the-stargate-project/

Learning to work hands-on for peace from former US-President Jimmy Carter

by Ulrich Graute • 1 January 2025
It was a tremendous privilege in my life to meet Rosalynn and Jimmy Carter for the first time in 1984 (picture) and then again in the summer of 1985 during my internship at Koinonia Farm near Americus, Georgia (USA). Jimmy Carter, who served as the 39th president of the U.S. from 1977 to 1981, died on December 29, 2024, at his home in Plains, Ga. Jimmy Carter was a lifelong farmer who worked with his hands building houses for the poor well into his 90s. I didn't agree with him on all issues (the early 1980s were the time of a new US missile deployment in Germany ordered by Jimmy Carter and a large peace movement against it) but he took the time to discuss it with me and others at Koinonia Farm. That alone was amazing. Even more mind-blowing was that he continued hands-on work on peacebuilding and house renovation for the poor around the world with Habitat for Humanity International well into his 90s. If in my career providing hands-on support became more important than climbing my own career path, this was also due to the example Jimmy Carter gave in the decades after his Presidency. I learned a lot from him about working for peace with humbleness, love, and perseverance. Read more in the New York Times about why Jimmy Carter was known as much for his charity and diplomatic work later in life as he was for his single presidential term, which ended in 1981. https://lnkd.in/d9qxSmTM *. *. *. *. * Note: This post was first published on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/posts/graute_learning-to-work-hands-on-for-peace-from-activity-7279396908270309376-BBjV?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop

The United Nations risks drowning in its mandates, conferences and external expectations. Could Artificial Intelligence help the UN?

by Ulrich Graute • 2 December 2024
In 2024, for the first time since 2000, the Parties to the United Nations Rio Conventions on biodiversity, climate change, and desertification faced a very busy 3 months, moving from large Conferences of Parties (COP) in Cali (Colombia) for biodiversity in October to Baku (Azerbaijan) for climate in November to Riyadh (Saudi Arabia) for desertification in December. On top of this Triple-COP, there was the UN High Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development and the UN Summit of the Future in September in New York (USA) while UN-Habitat held its World Urban Forum in Cairo (Egypt), and let’s not forget the fifth session of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee to develop an international legally binding instrument on plastic pollution, including in the marine environment (INC-5) which ended last weekend in Busan, South Korea. No real breakthroughs were reported but I noticed many promises to double future efforts. There is a lot that can be critically reviewed about the events, eg what’s the purpose of moving approximately 100.000+ delegates, UN staffers, and other participants worldwide if the necessary political will to agree and resources available are insufficient and the outcomes are limited accordingly? But such a critique would be a bit unfair since I don’t know how many new ideas and initiatives were born during those official meetings, side events, and informal chats that might bloom up in upcoming years despite of the multicrises we’re living in. What needs to be criticized is that the UN System is not progressing on its task to implement its many mandates more “synergistically” by targeting policies, programs, and initiatives to jointly address the goals of the Rio Conventions, SDGs, etc. Instead, the conferences referred to each other but worked mainly within their silos. This is not appropriate in a world full of interrelations and interdepensies. Well, no individual or group can follow up on every aspect, and swarm intelligence of conferences with thousands of participants each seems to be no functioning alternative. But what else could be done? To give an example: How about building an AI-based Large Language Model (LLM) trained with the UN Charter, all UN declarations, national and subnational resolutions, regulations, and programmes? AI Agents for the different conventions and agendas should then be asked to coordinate and propose “synergistic” proposals across policy levels. Of course, the use of artificial intelligence should be wisely supervised by a team of AI experts and professionals from all affected fields. I wouldn’t expect AI applications to solve all problems but to better inform decision-makers and UN agencies on integrated scenarios. This could help to increase efficiency, avoid duplicating efforts, and increase the overall problem-solving capacity of the UN. I would be happy to support such work with my governance and development experience across all policy levels. Picture source: https://www.iisd.org/articles/policy-analysis/cop-nature-climate-adaptation-mitigation

THE GLOBAL STAGE FOR CITIES AND REGIONS AT THE UN CLIMATE CHANGE CONFERENCE BAKU (COP29), NOVEMBER 2024

by Ulrich Graute • 14 November 2024
Since the first climate COP in 1995, the Local Governments and Municipal Authorities (LGMA) Constituency has been representing local and regional governments at the processes under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The LGMA also represents ISOCARP - International Society of City and Regional Planners and Global Taskforce of Local and Regional Governments. ICLEI - Local Governments for Sustainability acts as the Focal Point of LGMA. The 2015 Paris Agreement marked a turning point, recognizing the essential role of these governments in enhancing Nationally Determined Contributions NDSs and driving transformative climate action. The LGMA is atively present in Baku with a robust agenda, numerous partners, and an esteemed delegation of political leaders representing local and subnational governments. At the center of the presence is the Multilevel Action & Urbanization Pavilion as the global stage for the city and region climate agenda during COP29. The Pavilion brings into focus not only the challenges and needs, but also the accomplishments and commitments of local and subnational actors on climate action. The Pavilion is open from 12 to 22 November in the Blue Zone, Area E, Pavilion I15. We are looking forward to welcoming you at the High-Level Opening on 12 November at 10:00 AM. Please find the agenda of LGMA attached. Please visit also the Youtube channel of ICLEI Global for daily updates https://lnkd.in/dddDCKtA Ulrich Graute - ISOCARP Online Delegate at COP29 and Chair of the ISOCARP Scientific Committee

Planning New Inclusive Cities using Smart Tech and Artificial Intelligence

by Ulrich Graute • 19 October 2024
Report on the Urban Conversation on Ethical Use of AI in Urban Planning at the 60th World Planning Congress in Siena, Italy on 11 OCTOBER 2024
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