A hima traditional ecological knowledge perspective of the sustainability goals in AlUla’s journey through time masterplan

Alshami, A; Bryant, M; Toland, A

A hima traditional ecological knowledge perspective of the sustainability goals in AlUla’s journey through time masterplan

Alshami, A Bryant, M

Toland, A

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Publisher:: SAGE Publications
Publication Type:: Journal Article
Citation:: Urban Studies, 2025, 0, (0)
Issue Date:: 2025-01-26

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Field	Value	Language
dc.contributor.author	Alshami, A
dc.contributor.author	Bryant, M https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0559-9633
dc.contributor.author	Toland, A
dc.date.accessioned	2025-01-30T03:57:30Z
dc.date.available	2024-10-31
dc.date.available	2025-01-30T03:57:30Z
dc.date.issued	2025-01-26
dc.identifier.citation	Urban Studies, 2025, 0, (0)
dc.identifier.issn	0042-0980
dc.identifier.issn	1360-063X
dc.identifier.uri	http://hdl.handle.net/10453/184625
dc.description.abstract	Saudi Arabia’s ‘Vision 2030’ proposes a more diversified society and a less oil-dominated economy, enabled by several ambitious best-practice sustainability urbanisation projects, one of which is the ‘Journey Through Time’ Masterplan for the urban region of AlUla in the Kingdom’s Hegra Valley. The Masterplan proposes an expansion and intensification of existing towns, economically supported by international tourism focused on the Hegra UNESCO World Heritage Site. It thereby couples tangible cultural heritage management with sustainable urban development. Yet the AlUla Masterplan has shown little evidence of engaging with the intangible heritage of traditional ecological knowledge and practices, known in Arabic as hima, which have been intrinsically connected to the ancient heritage fabric for millennia. Based on interviews with community elders and traditional knowledge-holders, site observations of traditional practices and techniques, and a review of government documents and websites, this paper demonstrates that consideration of local hima practices has the potential to integrate urban sustainability transitions together with the preservation of tangible and intangible cultural heritage. It suggests that practices embedded in local hima, like water-use and land-use arrangements, offer sustainable resource management and disaster mitigation options for the AlUla scheme; and that hima’s intrinsic social dimension, and its culture of intergenerational transmission, offers opportunities to connect heritage, community and the regional environment. Our research concludes with the benefits of integrating hima traditional ecological knowledge with cultural heritage preservation and urban modernisation, offering an approach to sustainable transformations of the region’s cities, communities and sometimes fragile resources.
dc.language	en
dc.publisher	SAGE Publications
dc.relation.ispartof	Urban Studies
dc.relation.isbasedon	10.1177/00420980241301656
dc.rights	info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
dc.subject	1205 Urban and Regional Planning, 1402 Applied Economics, 1604 Human Geography
dc.subject.classification	Urban & Regional Planning
dc.subject.classification	3304 Urban and regional planning
dc.subject.classification	4406 Human geography
dc.subject.classification	4407 Policy and administration
dc.title	A hima traditional ecological knowledge perspective of the sustainability goals in AlUla’s journey through time masterplan
dc.type	Journal Article
utslib.citation.volume	0
utslib.for	1205 Urban and Regional Planning
utslib.for	1402 Applied Economics
utslib.for	1604 Human Geography
pubs.organisational-group	University of Technology Sydney
pubs.organisational-group	University of Technology Sydney/Faculty of Design, Architecture and Building
pubs.organisational-group	University of Technology Sydney/Faculty of Design, Architecture and Building/School of Architecture
utslib.copyright.status	open_access	*
pubs.consider-herdc	true
dc.rights.license	This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC 4.0). To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
dc.date.updated	2025-01-30T03:57:25Z
pubs.issue	0
pubs.publication-status	Published online
pubs.volume	0
utslib.citation.issue	0

Abstract:

Saudi Arabia’s ‘Vision 2030’ proposes a more diversified society and a less oil-dominated economy, enabled by several ambitious best-practice sustainability urbanisation projects, one of which is the ‘Journey Through Time’ Masterplan for the urban region of AlUla in the Kingdom’s Hegra Valley. The Masterplan proposes an expansion and intensification of existing towns, economically supported by international tourism focused on the Hegra UNESCO World Heritage Site. It thereby couples tangible cultural heritage management with sustainable urban development. Yet the AlUla Masterplan has shown little evidence of engaging with the intangible heritage of traditional ecological knowledge and practices, known in Arabic as hima, which have been intrinsically connected to the ancient heritage fabric for millennia. Based on interviews with community elders and traditional knowledge-holders, site observations of traditional practices and techniques, and a review of government documents and websites, this paper demonstrates that consideration of local hima practices has the potential to integrate urban sustainability transitions together with the preservation of tangible and intangible cultural heritage. It suggests that practices embedded in local hima, like water-use and land-use arrangements, offer sustainable resource management and disaster mitigation options for the AlUla scheme; and that hima’s intrinsic social dimension, and its culture of intergenerational transmission, offers opportunities to connect heritage, community and the regional environment. Our research concludes with the benefits of integrating hima traditional ecological knowledge with cultural heritage preservation and urban modernisation, offering an approach to sustainable transformations of the region’s cities, communities and sometimes fragile resources.

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http://hdl.handle.net/10453/184625