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32 © Sherif, Shalaby, and Altan 2016 | Towards the Second Sustainable City
level to maintain the unity and integrity of the may delay its sustainable development. Taking
UAE as a country. The leading emirate in the the rest of the emirates into consideration,
field of the development plan is Dubai. In 1971, especially RAK, they may not have the same
it undertook a huge, rapid development plan potential and opportunities that Abu Dhabi has,
that changed the whole image of the city in a which is why it should follow Abu Dhabi’s steps
matter of a few years. Under the wise leadership in developing its own unique development plan.
of His Highness Shaikh Mohamed Bin Rashed Al The last emirate to join the union seems to have
Maktoum, the Vice President and Prime many opportunities in terms of sustainable
Minister of the UAE, ruler of Dubai, the emirate development, although many challenges may
did not deny or ignore the sustainability aspect arise along the development way.
while applying the emirate’s development plan.
Thus, as a new growing city, there were no This study will analyze the Abu Dhabi model,
sustainable plans or approaches regarding how highlighting the techniques and approaches that
to study the existing situation and recommend can be applied and reflected on RAK. In the
strategies in the scope of a holistic sustainable study, there will be full details of the current
package of the development process. As a situation of RAK, emphasizing the major
natural result, the government approved some challenges and the possible solutions towards
US and European approaches and programs, the second sustainable city in the UAE and the
such as the LEED program to design and rank Middle East.
buildings, communities, and developments.
The methodology used in this study is a
Abu Dhabi started this process later than Dubai. comparative analysis between the status of both
Despite this, it closely mirrored Dubai’s steps Abu Dhabi and RAK in all sustainability aspects,
for achieving this huge development in such a including environmental, social, and economic.
short time. The leadership of Abu Dhabi has The proposed analysis will highlight the
established the Abu Dhabi Urban Planning strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and
Council (UPC) back in 2005 to design, under- threats for both cities and will test some of the
take, and monitor the development procedures practices addressed in Abu Dhabi and how they
of the emirate. The UPC’s general mission is to are relevant to application in RAK.
establish procedures, plans, and development
regulations that govern Abu Dhabi’s physical 3. Literature Review
environment. As a result of this mission, UPC
launched the Abu Dhabi Vision 2030 “Towards The nature of this study as a comparative
the 1st Sustainable Capital in the Middle East” analysis between two existing case studies
to control all development aspects in accor- required huge amounts of data and information
dance with the Abu Dhabi economic Vision gathering and analysis in order to address the
2030 that was launched earlier by the Abu actual current situation of both Abu Dhabi and
Dhabi Council for Economic Development RAK. It also required a detailed search to be
(ADCED) back in 2008. conducted on previous developments for RAK in
order to list all the previously proposed
2. Methodology solutions and development plans to avoid any
duplication or repetition and to provide feasible
As mentioned before, the future of the UAE relevant solutions to the current problems.
would be very bright if all the emirates followed
the steps of Dubai and Abu Dhabi. Yet Abu Analyzing the status of the emirate of Abu Dhabi
Dhabi seems to be a better model, as it limited most of the data resources in govern-
undertook its own systems and plans and came mental reports and studies. The UPC, which is
up with a unique design for the development responsible for the development procedures in
process that emphasizes the strengths and Abu Dhabi, has published the development
opportunities the city has, avoiding the missions, objectives, procedures, rules, regu-
weaknesses, and overcoming the threats that lations, and plans framework on its formal web-
site. These data were used to address the
Science Target Inc. www.sciencetarget.com
