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Overview and Methodology

A Portal for Sharing Knowledge on Urban Development

The Arab Urban Development Portal is an open digital platform that provides information about cities, municipalities, urban projects and development organizations and their publications in the Arab region.

The portal acts as a participatory platform, where the pages of cities and municipalities are contributed by the local authorities themselves. Interested development organizations can also provide information about themselves and their publications. Project section, in particular, is filled by the AUDI through a research team. The Portal is of interest to municipalities, development organizations, and individuals interested in urban development issues in the Arab region. Collected information about cities and development organizations and their work facilitates the transfer of experiences and encourages cooperation between them. Information and reports are provided in Arabic and English languages.
Urban Development Projects
Visitors of the platform can access information about urban development PROJECTS in the region by hovering over them on the interactive map of the PROJECTS section. Alternatively, they can narrow their search using the filter functions. By clicking on a project title, the visitor obtains a report that includes a description of the project’s components, objectives, phases, and the stakeholders behind it. References are also provided for those interested in further resources on the project.

AUDI has established a set of criteria to identify projects of particular significance to be featured in this section, including:

In identifying the projects, AUDI started by going through projects listed on similar platforms (Metropolis’ Use platform, Connective Cities’ platform). It then went through websites and documents of international organizations and funding agencies that are active in the Arab region. After that, it moved to look into the websites of the municipalities of 80 large cities in the Arab region. A snowball mechanism allowed AUDI to enlarge the number of projects to reach a list of 400+ projects for which AUDI will prepare project sheets – as a first target. As the projects’ database will grow progressively, an attention is given to ensure that all Arab countries are represented. For that, AUDI has adopted a proportional distribution of projects that takes into account the countries’ population size, the size of their cities, but also the number of large urban projects that have been launched in each country in the last decade. Additionally, attention has been given to ensure diversity in the types and sizes of projects. Hence, AUDI seeks to always maintain a certain balance in terms of sectors covered by the selected projects: planning, transportation, housing, green and public spaces, infrastructure, heritage, etc. AUDI relies on secondary data in preparing the projects’ sheets. This includes mostly documents available online in Arabic, English, or French, and in some cases, documents provided by Arab municipalities through direct contact.
Cities
In the CITIES section, visitors can select a city and access information about it provided by its municipality or local authority. This information includes data about its geographic, demographic, economic context as well as insights about its housing and transportation situation. AUDI has prepared a form that helps municipalities provide required information about their cities. It can be accessed from the Portal’s main page. At the same time, AUDI will progressively contact member municipalities to encourage them to fill the CITIES form.
Urban Development Organizations
On the ORGANIZATIONS section, visitors can find an address book of municipalities, public institutions, research and scientific centers, consulting institutions, local and international associations, and donor agencies working in the field of urban development in the Arab region. The visitor can search for organizations according to their type, areas of intervention, and the countries in which they operate. AUDI has prepared a form that helps organizations provide required information about themselves. It can be accessed from the Portal’s main page. At the same time, AUDI will progressively contact member municipalities and partner organizations to encourage them to fill their information on the ORGANZATIONS page.
Urban Development Publications
On the PUBLICATIONS section, the platform displays a list of recent studies and reports issued by municipalities, development agencies, and international organizations operating in the Arab region. It will also include a specific section for publication issued by the Arab Urban Development Institute. AUDI has prepared a form that helps organizations provide required information about their publications. It can be accessed from the Portal’s main page. At the same time, AUDI will progressively contact member municipalities and partner organizations to encourage them to fill their information on the PUBLICATIONS page.
All data received from contributors outside the institution will be reviewed for minor edits by AUDI team before being posted online. However, AUDI has limited means to ensure the accuracy of all the information on the CITIES, ORGANIZATIONS and PUBLICATIONS pages, it remains dependent on the municipalities and organizations who provided it. Hence, AUDI encourages any person to provide further information or comments/corrections on any data in the Portal by writing to infohub@araburban.org. This feedback would allow to improve the quality of information published.