Abstract
Due to the economic boom in the Saudi kingdom during the seventies, the urban area of the economic capital of the kingdom and its historic main port were subject to a lot of modifications and expansions. Later, during the eighties, the city expanded dramatically to the north and the old city was deserted. During the nineties, preservation and conservation strategies were implemented to maintain the city's culture and heritage. Since then, governmental and civil society organisations have been engaged in maintaining and conserving the historic once-gated old city, known these days as Al-Balad District. Moreover, successful efforts have been made by the Saudi authorities to register the vast majority of the remains of this historic area as human race heritage through the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Culture Organization (UNICCO).
Through this, practitioners and researchers spent a lot of effort in developing and adopting strategies and policies to revive and preserve this heritage urban area. This research, as part of these efforts, aims to evaluate the applied urban conservation strategies and policies for Al-Balad District, to test their success in preserving the heritage while maintaining socio-physical, socio-cultural, and environmental aspects of the local community. To do this, benchmark case studies for developing and conserving historic urban areas were analysed and compared to the applied strategies. The research concludes with recommended policies to achieve the most sustainable conservation strategies in this valuable area that will fulfil the recent needs of the local community.