Page 49 - U4SSC Factsheet, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, June 2020

Goals and Projects for a Smart and Sustainable Future

As the analysis of Riyadh's U4SSC KPIs in this report shows, Riyadh is well positioned to develop
structured and measurable smart sustainability strategies for the coming decades. It performs well on
several U4SSC indicators that it has reported. In conceptualizing its vision for the foreseeable future,
therefore, Riyadh can employ a two-fold focus:

1. maintain performance levels in the KPIs that meet the corresponding SDG Targets and that
benchmark well in comparison to regional, national, or global city data; and
2. build a framework of policies that will enact improvements in the KPIs that potentially require
intervention.

Riyadh’s smart sustainable city (SSC) goals are expected to align with the national overall Saudi Vision
2030 strategy and its goals. The ADA’s Riyadh Smart City Implementation Roadmap outlines the city’s
goals and provides a 3–5 year high-level implementation plan that it expects to employ. The Roadmap
contains important milestones with dependencies and timelines for several key focus areas, including:

• Resources: The effective utilization of resources, including: ICT infrastructure (city systems, city IoT
and city networks), city data, smart applications, smart city platform, and smart services portfolio.
• Governance Structure: With multiple stakeholders and competing agendas, an agile governance
model is needed to see Riyadh through this transformation.

• Regulatory Framework: An appropriate regulatory framework (including policies, laws, and
regulations) is critical to ensuring cooperation between stakeholders and adherence to smart city
standards.

• Public-Private Partnerships: The private sector is a key contributor throughout the implementation
phase and beyond.
• Public Participation: Public participation will assure alignment in the smart service supply and
demand model within the Riyadh smart city. It will, henceforth, continue to be enhanced through
a specific framework and tools.
• Stakeholder City Experience: An improved stakeholder city experience is the ultimate end goal of
the Riyadh Smart City Masterplan.

Riyadh’s U4SSC project, including this report, fulfils two particular steps of the Roadmap’s implementation
plan: ‘Current State Assessment’, and ‘Research & Benchmarking’. Information provided by the city
shows that it is already making positive headway in major areas that some key recommendations in
the preceding sections are related to. These are summarized below according to the categories within
the U4SSC sub-dimensions:

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