Abstract
The sustainability of urban environments is linked to their inhabitants’ lifestyles quality. Number of variables including accessibility, imageability, permeability, and green space per capita are used as indicators in measuring lifestyle quality. Al-Khobar is the first planned city in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia that adopted a grid system pattern in the late 1940s for planning the oldest neighborhood (Northern Al-Khobar). This revealed very limited green open spaces, which the waterfront to the east recently offered it. This study was initiated to explore the potentialities of linking the city to its opposite waterfront, as the arterial road (Princes Turki Street) separates the two identities. It applied Uses and users, Space, Environment, and Circulation (USEC) framework—based on developed criteria—to assess the potentialities of 28 west-east local streets directly positioned to the waterfront for linkage of the two identities. The study found that eight streets offer such potential linkages; five of them are of good Connectivity Indicator (CI) while the other three are of acceptable CI.
Keywords: Potential linkage, USEC, Waterfront, Green open space, Connectivity indicator
