An Urban Morphometrics Approach to Investigate the Quality of Urban Life in Saudi Arabia

Rapid urbanisation has been reshaping cities worldwide, and Saudi Arabian cities have experienced a particularly fast and uneven transformation. This study examined how emerging urban structures in Saudi Arabia relate to societal change and, critically, whether differences in urban form are associated with differences in residents’ Quality of Urban Life (QoUL). The aim was to generate evidence that could support more effective planning and help avoid planning mistakes. A selected city was quantified using computational Urban Morphometrics (UMM) by analysing the built environment at the building scale to generate distinct Urban Types (UTs) within the city. These derived UTs were then linked to the QoUL survey, in collaboration with the Saudi QoL program, to assess whether certain morphologies tended to align with higher or lower levels of perceived urban quality. The results showed that UTs were not equivalent in lived experience. Different UTs were associated with different QoUL levels. The findings indicated that measurable variations in urban morphology corresponded to systematic differences in QoUL, suggesting that the overall shape and structure of the area- and street-to-block building configurations mattered for residents’ satisfaction. Overall, the study concluded that a morphology-based classification of Saudi urban structures provides a practical, evidence-driven foundation for planning. By identifying urban types linked to QoUL levels, planners could target interventions more precisely, reduce preventable design errors, and develop policies that better support improved QoUL across Saudi Arabia and the world.