Document Type

Dissertation

Abstract

This research aimed to substantially illustrate that the weakness of environmental regulations and lack of public participation in urban planning alongside poor public awareness in Saudi Arabia has inhibited the implementation of environmental policies across this region. To study these issues, this research compared the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (“KSA”) to the United States (“US”) building on numerous studies to illustrate how the identified weaknesses correlate with weak or ineffective environmental policies. It is well known that it would be better to use a European country “because it's known that the EU has tough environmental measures" as a model for KSA regarding environmental protection standards. This is true, but I find it more beneficial to take this gradually, as to use a country that achieved average success in environment protection compared to EU. Also, what is more interesting in choosing the US as a model is that, with its federal system of governance that makes it harder to implement national environmental protection measures, the US has made significant progress in environmental protection compared to KSA. While it has a central unified government system that makes national policy implementation much easier, KSA could not effectively implement environmental protection measures like the US. The main argument I make here is that better environmental outcomes is dependent upon increased public awareness and better enforcement of environmental laws and regulations. The former can be accomplished through public participation in the law-making process and in urban planning decisions. The latter, through the creation of independent environmental courts.

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