MEASURING THE URBAN MATURITY OF MEDIUM-SIZED CITIES “A CASE STUDY OF SINBELLAWEEN CITY”

Maturity is considered a natural process the city achived during its development and growth, and it is also necessary to achive goals efficiently and effectively. Maturity represents the ideal stage of development because of the optimal investment of environmental, urban, social, economic, political and technological savings with the required efficiency, and the sustainable use of resources to ensure the sustainability of maturity for the longest possible period. Maturity is considered comparative process, as cities and regions are uneven in maturity degree, the time frame for achieving it, and the possibility of its sustainability. Urban maturity represents an important sector in the maturity of the city, as urbanism is the melting pot in which the environmental, social, economic and technological characteristics appear. The study relied on a set of global, regional and local standards, such as standards of sustainability, flexibility, and quality of life, as well as standards for assessing the maturity of cities to arrive at a complex mathematical methodology that relies on a set of statistical methods such as (time series analysis - correlation analysis...) to arrive at a measure of urban maturity. For cities, which consists of 10 sectors and about 70 urban indicators. The city maturity assessment scale suffers from major shortcomings due to the diversity of the urban and functional characteristics of each region. Therefore, the scale depends on the flexibility of indicators for each region depending on the function, approved urban theories, and architectural and construction techniques. The study also had a set of theories such as (urban dynamics1 - urban cycles[2] -..) There is a role in understanding the impact of indicators on urban maturity, and the reasons for the variation in influencing factors, such as size and functional characteristics, on the urban maturity of the city. Medium cities represent a very important sector of urban Settlements, and their role is to link local and regional Settlements, in addition to their role in providing some sub-regional services and activities. Therefore, countries are keen to pay attention to the development of medium cities for their urban, social and economic role for smaller agglomerations within their urban scope. The study case the city of Sinbillawain as an applied model for measuring urban maturity, which specified the period between 2008 AD and 2022 AD in implementing the city’s strategic plan[3], which indicates that it has reached the end of the development period and the beginning of the maturity stage, which indicates the importance of assessing the city’s urban maturity. The study identified five Sample areas for each stage of the city’s growth and development. The study found that there is a difference between urban maturity and spatial urban growth. Although the city’s urban growth rate amounts to 97% of the approved area, the maturity rates of the city’s areas range between 21.6% and 27.1%, which indicates that the urban growth of the city of Sinbillawen requires Activating urban maturity technique, also confirms the shortcomings of the mature development vision of the city plan, which affected the maturity of the urban sector.
 
Special Issue of AEIC 2024 (Sustainable Architecture and Urban Design Session)