Jeddah (UNA) - The activities of the Eighth Arab Housing Conference, which was hosted by the Republic of Algeria during the period from December 17-19, 2024, concluded yesterday, Thursday.
The conference was held under the slogan “Sustainable Urbanism and Construction: Challenges and Promising Hopes”, and its topics included discussions on sustainable urbanism, decent, safe and affordable housing, sustainable cities and quality of life, as well as discussions on green buildings and environmentally friendly building materials.
The conference witnessed extensive discussions and exchange of experiences and opinions on topics related to sustainable urbanization, housing and the city, which resulted in a number of recommendations, the most important of which was to give sustainable urbanization importance in thought and practice to achieve flexible cities capable of withstanding and sustainability, in line with Goal No. 11 of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
As well as unifying the concepts, terminology and standards related to decent and affordable housing in Arab countries, while working to provide a database for urban planning, construction, housing and the city in a way that takes into account the specificities of each Arab country within the general vision of joint Arab action, and exchanging expertise and experiences and deepening communication between Arab countries in the fields related to urban planning and sustainable construction.
The recommendations also included developing government policies to promote social housing and affordable housing in cooperation and coordination between the public sector, the private sector, and civil society during collaborative work in financing decent housing, and adopting a smart construction and development policy to save and rationalize energy consumption and adapt to climate change.
The recommendations also include the use of smart technologies in urban transportation and communications to reduce congestion and gas emissions for sustainable and safe cities, and emphasizing the importance of using local, environmentally friendly natural building materials to reduce construction costs on the one hand, and their environmental and health impact on the other.
The recommendations called for facilitating the financing of decent housing through real estate loans and encouraging participatory financing, updating data to confront natural hazards such as earthquakes and mitigating their effects, in addition to exchanging expertise and knowledge in new city projects and supporting the idea of twenty-minute cities in major Arab cities.
The discussions recommended emphasizing the support of Arab countries for the Palestinian cause, promoting desert infrastructure and developing inland cities in Arab countries to create a balance in national urban planning, as well as encouraging, supporting and funding scientific and academic research in low-cost building materials and the recovery of building materials, and integrating the idea of sustainable urbanization and green buildings into education curricula in Arab countries.
The recommendations also include introducing satellite imaging and remote sensing technologies into studies of cities in Arab countries and indicators of urban areas, and promoting the desert environment and inland cities to embody the strategic balance of national urban planning policies in each Arab country, and paying attention to programs to reduce random urban expansion in Arab cities, especially in agricultural lands, and the importance of restoring reclaimed random areas in urban development plans, and activating the smart cities approach in road and transportation management, monitoring environmental quality, combating pollution, and managing waste by strengthening urban governance in Arab cities.
(is over)
