“…Moreover, NEOM aligns with global development agendas by UN-affiliated organizations that advocate for sustainable urbanization and tackle essential issues like poverty, healthcare, and environmental sustainability (Boelt, 2014). Urban development in desert areas presents unique challenges such as water scarcity, harsh climates, environmental conservation, and the need for sustainable resource management (Ramadan and Effat, 2021;Alogayell et al, 2024). Strategies to address these include desalination, water recycling, and rainwater harvesting for water scarcity (Alkhalidi et al, 2018;Amr, 2023) innovative architecture and renewable energy to cope with extreme climates (Günel, 2019;Kutty et al, 2023) environmental conservation efforts to protect biodiversity and prevent ecological degradation (Sankaran and Chopra, 2020;Ramadan R. H. et al, 2022;Effat et al, 2022) and the development of durable infrastructure designed to withstand desert conditions (Riadh, 2022).…”