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The objective of this paper is mainly to contribute to and activate, the process of saving and preserving the rich tangible and intangible heritage embraced in the historic center of Al-Najaf city. This was possible through examining the existing historic urban and architectural structures of the city, unveiling the major issues that are threatening both its traditional cultural and architectural identity, and finally analyzing similar examples that proved to be successful in addressing similar problems in order to derive possible strategies for saving, preserving and revitalizing the historical center of Al-Najaf Old City.

This paper addresses the major problems of heritage preservation in Al-Najaf City (750 AD), which is one of the historical and most sacred religious centers especially for Shia Muslims around the world. Despite its importance, the rich cultural and architectural heritage of the city is dramatically neglected and seriously threatened to be lost.

Preservation in Al-Najaf City is proposed as a sustainable development strategy. Top-down and bottom-up strategies are proposed not only for preserving the historic architectural and urban characteristics of the city but also for reviving its social and cultural activities and traditions.

The major issues addressed in this paper include the fragmentation and decentralization of the cohesive traditional urban fabric, the disruption of the spatial organization, the deformation of the traditional architectural characteristics of the city and its skyline, the discontinuity of facades' patterns, the destruction and demolition of historical buildings, the transformation of land use, and the regression of traditional social and cultural activities.

The purpose of this study is to explore a sustainable hierarchical framework for the business environment in smart cities. However, this hierarchical framework must consider unnecessary attributes and interrelationships between criteria to capture the difference between smart cities and traditional cities.

Hence, the fuzzy set theory is used for screening unnecessary attributes, the decision-making and trial evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL) is applied to manage the complex interrelationships among the aspects and attributes and interpretive structural modeling (ISM) is used to divide the hierarchy and construct a hierarchical theoretical framework. Ultimately, this research is applied to develop a sustainable hierarchical framework of the business environment in smart cities.

The results show that traditional social problems are still at the core of business environment development in smart cities, new smart opportunities may be discovered, but they are still limited by traditional social factors, the economy is still the main aspect of the business environment and there are still obstacles to solving social problems with smart technologies.

This theoretical hierarchical framework aims to guide smart cities toward sustainability. This study also proposes creating a predictable business environment by improving administrative efficiency, transparency, social mobility and infrastructure services and cultivating new business opportunities with intelligent technology.

The paper discusses current trends and future developments in the study of people-urban environment relations, with an emphasis on the concept of diversity within the Gulf cities. This is explored in relation to: theoretical approaches, urban public spaces, people's lifestyles, social groups and inclusive urban environments. Contemporary Gulf cities are providing unique examples for research on urban diversity. Its demographic structure is distinctive for a minimum of 50% expatriates in overall population. Gulf cities are obliged to cope with such a compelling fact. The challenge is to move away from indifference and bring about better acceptance of others. On the relationship; city spaces and culture, the paper argues that traditional markets must be envisioned as spaces for cultural expressions. Traditional markets are a rich display of products and talents and a great opportunity to share and meet with people from same culture and others. Using comparative analysis approach juxtapositioning the selected cases, the paper confronts questions like what does Gulf urban diversity mean in the present. In addition, is diversity in urban spaces only a challenge to be dealt with or is there also economic potential that can be taken advantage of? How do we ensure that Gulf cities are indeed spaces of tolerance? How to give visibility to the spaces of marginalized groups, as these spaces are often ignored or worse, eliminated? How to preserve or regain spaces in the city for the expression of traditional cultures of those migrating from other regions or countries? The paper explores the socioeconomic and cultural mechanisms that can encourage inclusive pluralism in the Gulf cities' open spaces.

This study aims to examine the trajectory of the urban growth of Borneo by portraying its resilient settlements in the pre-colonial times, tropical sensitive colonial architecture, the built environment of the post–independence period and finally the contemporary city image. This is followed by a comparative study of its major urban centres and determining how globalisation and neoliberalism impact the traditional urban settlements of this island and poses a threat to its rich biodiversity.

This study uses case study research methodology involving selected cities on the Island of Borneo including Kota Kinabalu, Sandakan, Miri and Kuching (Sabah and Sarawak, Malaysia), Bandar Seri Begawan (Brunei), and major cities of the state of Kalimantan, Indonesia. Data collection includes a literature review, content analysis, field assessment and observations. The major research objectives would address past and current issues in the selected urban environment of Borneo. They address the historical evolution of major cities of Borneo, current urban development trends, the deterioration of the traditional urban fabric as a result of post–independence development and later globalisation.

This study found that the rich cultural tradition and climate-responsive architecture from the past have been discontinued to pave way for fast track and often speculative development. The results contribute in the convergence of existing shortcomings of cities from three nations on Borneo Island in guiding future sustainable urban planning agenda for achieving a resilient city status while reinstating the character and the sense of place. The study expects the recommendations to become prerequisites for future urban planning in sensitive tropical regions.

This research identified a new “Borneo approach” to urban development. The study strongly recommends top priorities for the central, state and local governments of Malaysia, Brunei and Indonesia allowing the planners and decision-makers to establish a new tropical urban planning initiative with the ample design practice for this unique region in Southeast Asia. The results of this study can serve as the guiding principles for other urban environments in fragile and sensitive tropical regions.

Diversity is embedded in the concept of cities and the urban way of life, and is an important issue in the planning and management of urban development. Urban diversity is usually manifested in Public space. This paper examines patterns of diversity in the public space of a traditional city, Zaria, with the goal of identifying general lessons for city design. The paper starts with a review on the application of diversity to public space, and then moves on to introduces Zaria's public space and historically explore patterns to arrive at findings regarding diversity. Material for the paper has been derived from a detailed study of Zaria's public space, in which a variety of methods and techniques was used (Garba, 2007). The paper in concluding notes that diversity is connected with centrality, and identifies three issues that facilitate the quest for urban diversity; place attractiveness, appropriateness of development scale and embedded settings for activities, and regime of access and participation. The paper notes that the study findings reinforce existing knowledge in the literature and points to the need for re-evaluating the system of urban production to better use available knowledge in the quest for urban diversity.

This paper is intended to assess the developments conducted on the master plan of Old Najaf, mainly in three areas: the Imam Ali Holy Shrine and its surroundings, the Great Market Area and the location of the Town of Visitors.

In order to analyse the implementation of the transformation phases in Old Najaf, the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats (SWOT) technique was used to identify and organise the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats related to the examined case study of the city's historic centre. At the first stage, all available data (photographs, maps, documents and reports) were collected from different sources, including previous studies by governmental institutions, departments and agencies. Ultimately, the SWOT analysis was used for each identified phase in the morphological evolution of the historic centre. This can offer an opportunity to observe the implications of urban planning practices in Old Najaf from the mid-20th century to the present day. In order to identify the well-organised urban design practices and appropriate strategies, the implemented studies and projects were examined by the four factors of the SWOT analysis.

The current results have revealed important urban transformations, already made and/or ongoing, of those aforementioned three main areas, which imply a great loss of the city's traditional character and urban heritage. Further, the environmental and socio-economic issues should be involved in the analysis to evaluate how they have influenced the current outcomes of Old Najaf in relation to the urban configuration and orientation.

The rich cultural and architectural heritage of Al-Najaf historic centre is dramatically neglected and seriously threatened to be lost. Hence, conservation on both tangible and intangible levels is urgently needed. It is the first paper which focussed on this problem and tries to learn from the British Conservation Experiences in this field.

The organization of events in public spaces in the cities of Oporto, Vila Nova de Gaia (both in Portugal), and Barcelona (Spain) led us to propose a classification of thematic cities. The conclusions are the result of social representations of organizers and sponsors in the three cities and, thus, it is a qualitative study carried out in research Ph.D. in Sociology at the Faculty of Letters of the University of Oporto. We propose the presentation of some events organized in three public spaces – Aliados Avenue in Oporto, Cais de Gaia’s waterfront in Vila Nova de Gaia, and Ramblas in Barcelona – to make its framing in terms of objectives, motivations, and public. We also appealed to the social representations of interviewees to evaluate the quality and structure of public spaces in the two cities in the metropolitan area of Oporto in comparison with the Catalan city. Finally, we propose the typification of the three cities according to the features presented throughout the chapter.

One of the innumerable ways to systemise contemporary European urban projects is to analyse the urban form originates from the master-plan concept. The duality of closed and open urban situations is an excellent conceptual tool for classification. This classification helps us to recognise, understand and represent the diversity of the city, as it is present on each level of a settlement and architecture.

In the case of “Solid-oriented” projects construction and emplacement of buildings are the main goals. The principle of “Solid-oriented” projects are based on two very different, still existing traditions One is the classical European closed block structure, while the other one is the Modernist open urban system. Today we can identify two new approaches combining those two traditions in different ways. Urban transparency preserves streets, the effect of enclosure, and the dominance of buildings. At the same time density is coupled with spaciousness, blocks are fractured and the environment becomes more complex even within one block. The in-between method, based on the idea of structuralism, attempts to balance the importance of mass and space and creates permeable blocks in a new open urban structure. Besides creating urban volumes or buildings in the city, there is a new type of challenge in contemporary urban design. Since the 1990's attention has shifted to cityscape, i.e. to re-interpreting and reforming open spaces. The international literature calls this un-volumetric architecture. The duality of openness and closedness also appears here. While openness seems to dominate urban situations in contemporary cities, buildings are predominantly used in a closed manner.

There has been much research on city marketing, but some practical aspects remain unaddressed. One challenge is the development of a distinctive city identity. Traditional marketing tactics often ignore, deny, and marginalize the city identity. A more integrated and holistic approach is needed. As a complementary tool, city branding can overcome the shortcomings associated with traditional marketing. The purpose of this chapter is to show through case studies how two cities with different conditions went about developing their respective brand identities and illustrate how the identities were established through brand elements and promoted through coordinated marketing programs. Based on the two case studies, this chapter presents a process model for developing an identity in city branding. The model accommodates two different approaches to developing city identities. The first is applicable in the situation where a city is already strongly identified with its prominent existing heritage and cultural assets. The second is applicable in the situations where a city does not have prominent existing assets.

Buildings alone do not matter, it is only the ensemble of streets, squares, and buildings and the way they fit together that comprises the true principles of good urbanism and place making. One of the main rules of good urban design is the quality of the public space. This paper analyzes the importance of creating & maintaining a true public square in contemporary urban condition, as one of the built environments' pillars for sustaining social and cultural identity.

Criticism has been posed towards the (neo) romanticizing the importance of European squares (as some critics would call it “Postcard Squares”) in everyday life and contemporary town planning. Movements such as New Urbanism, which promote good urban design have not put squares that high on their urban design agendas. Also the usage of the historic European city's public realm model - the square - as the important ingredient for all urban places has not been forthcoming. To investigate this phenomena, and facilitate the discourse, The Square of the St. Blaise Church (Luza Square) and the Gunduliceva Poljana Square in the Old City of Dubrovnik, are analyzed and reflected upon through various data collection, theory reflections and urban design evaluation methods, such as Garham's Sense of Place Typology-Taxonomy.

If cities have livable and vibrant social spaces, do residents tend to have a stronger sense of community and sense of place? If such places are lacking, does the opposite happen?. This paper seeks out to answer these questions. Finally the paper also looks at how the phenomenon of creating good social spaces through creating ‘third places’ is achieved and confirmed in the squares of Dubrovnik.