Author(s)

IMAN ABDEL SHAHID IBRAHIM

Abstract

The Global Footprint Network reported, in the Living Planet Report 2006, that the United Arab Emirates was the country with the largest per capita ecological footprint in the world, where the UAE government started the journey towards an ecological footprint to ensure a sustainable future by measuring and understanding the impact of the country’s development. Today, the UAE ecological footprint initiative stands as an exemplary model for nations in using the ecological footprint to measure consumption patterns. Sustainable cities’ vision was one of the key elements pushing the community to live green, starting in 2008 with the first sustainable city in Arab world, Masdar city in Abu Dhabi, followed by the second sustainable city in Dubai, started in 2013. The city is smaller, a manageably sized community that adopted new clean technologies getting optimum benefit of the sunny weather by using photovoltaic panels as a main energy source. There is no doubt that the sustainable city seems to be a utopian city in concept, but eventually it seems to be the only solution for raising communities with a sustainable social life that will change traditions and cultures towards a more ecological footprint. Dubai Sustainable City is a successful model that achieved a sustainable community with about 2,700 people currently live in the city, with different nationalities and mixed cultures that all aspired to an ecological environment and a future sustainable generation. Followed by Sharjah Sustainable City 2020, a new sustainable city in a different local community, adopted the same sustainability aspects. More modifications on design were offered to satisfy the local community social needs and to raise the acceptance levels for ecological footprint. The study will analyze the sustainable city concept rising in Arab countries with a deep investigation for Dubai and Sharjah sustainable cities and how far different cultures affect community acceptance for sustainability as a lifestyle.

Keywords

sustainable cities, sustainability circles, Dubai Sustainable City, Sharjah Sustainable City