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Transit-oriented development (TOD) in Saudi Arabia is becoming a significant priority for the government and developers to create a sustainable and quality living environment. TOD is an integrated transport and urban planning method that aims to reduce car use and urban sprawl, increase the use of public transport, and enhance sustainable mobility. To meet the global goals as per the Paris Accord, Saudi Arabia’s policymakers must prioritize the integration of TOD in urban planning. This study was carried out with the main aim of identifying the environmental, social, and economic benefits of implementing TOD in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. A mixed-study research method was used, and data were collected using a questionnaire survey and semi-structured interviews. The quantitative data were analyzed using SPSS version 21, and qualitative data were analyzed using NVivo software. The findings of this study show that TOD in Riyadh City would positively impact economic, environmental, and social aspects. TOD would reduce travel time, allow its people to have an active lifestyle, and reduce congestion. TOD would help reduce mental health disorders and improve physical activity. TOD would positively impact the environment of Riyadh City and assist in reducing greenhouse gases. Overall, the study results provide a reliable perspective on the benefits of TOD. Most participants assumed that the implementation of TOD in Riyadh City would increase automobile mobility, provide more employment opportunities, and reduce travel time, positively impacting the environment and economy of Riyadh City.

Megacities are immense sources of air pollutants, with large impacts on air quality and climate. However, emission inventories in many of them still are highly uncertain, particularly in developing countries. Satellite observations allow top-down estimates of emissions to be made for nitrogen oxides (NO x = NO + NO₂), but require poorly quantified a priori information on the NO x lifetime. We present a method for the simultaneous determination of megacity NO x emissions and lifetimes from satellite measurements by analyzing the downwind patterns of NO₂ separately for different wind conditions. Daytime lifetimes are ∼4 hours at low and mid-latitudes, but ∼8 hours in wintertime for Moscow. The derived NO x emissions are generally in good agreement with existing emission inventories, but are higher by a factor of 3 for the Saudi Arabian capital Riyadh.

National levels of personal health-care access and quality can be approximated by measuring mortality rates from causes that should not be fatal in the presence of effective medical care (ie, amenable mortality). Previous analyses of mortality amenable to health care only focused on high-income countries and faced several methodological challenges. In the present analysis, we use the highly standardised cause of death and risk factor estimates generated through the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) to improve and expand the quantification of personal health-care access and quality for 195 countries and territories from 1990 to 2015. We mapped the most widely used list of causes amenable to personal health care developed by Nolte and McKee to 32 GBD causes. We accounted for variations in cause of death certification and misclassifications through the extensive data standardisation processes and redistribution algorithms developed for GBD. To isolate the effects of personal health-care access and quality, we risk-standardised cause-specific mortality rates for each geography-year by removing the joint effects of local environmental and behavioural risks, and adding back the global levels of risk exposure as estimated for GBD 2015. We employed principal component analysis to create a single, interpretable summary measure–the Healthcare Quality and Access (HAQ) Index–on a scale of 0 to 100. The HAQ Index showed strong convergence validity as compared with other health-system indicators, including health expenditure per capita (r=0·88), an index of 11 universal health coverage interventions (r=0·83), and human resources for health per 1000 (r=0·77). We used free disposal hull analysis with bootstrapping to produce a frontier based on the relationship between the HAQ Index and the Socio-demographic Index (SDI), a measure of overall development consisting of income per capita, average years of education, and total fertility rates. This frontier allowed us to better quantify the maximum levels of personal health-care access and quality achieved across the development spectrum, and pinpoint geographies where gaps between observed and potential levels have narrowed or widened over time. Between 1990 and 2015, nearly all countries and territories saw their HAQ Index values improve; nonetheless, the difference between the highest and lowest observed HAQ Index was larger in 2015 than in 1990, ranging from 28·6 to 94·6. Of 195 geographies, 167 had statistically significant increases in HAQ Index levels since 1990, with South Korea, Turkey, Peru, China, and the Maldives recording among the largest gains by 2015. Performance on the HAQ Index and individual causes showed distinct patterns by region and level of development, yet substantial heterogeneities emerged for several causes, including cancers in highest-SDI countries; chronic kidney disease, diabetes, diarrhoeal diseases, and lower respiratory infections among middle-SDI countries; and measles and tetanus among lowest-SDI countries. While the global HAQ Index average rose from 40·7 (95% uncertainty interval, 39·0–42·8) in 1990 to 53·7 (52·2–55·4) in 2015, far less progress occurred in narrowing the gap between observed HAQ Index values and maximum levels achieved; at the global level, the difference between the observed and frontier HAQ Index only decreased from 21·2 in 1990 to 20·1 in 2015. If every country and territory had achieved the highest observed HAQ Index by their corresponding level of SDI, the global average would have been 73·8 in 2015. Several countries, particularly in eastern and western sub-Saharan Africa, reached HAQ Index values similar to or beyond their development levels, whereas others, namely in southern sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East, and south Asia, lagged behind what geographies of similar development attained between 1990 and 2015. This novel extension of the GBD Study shows the untapped potential for personal health-care access and quality improvement across the development spectrum. Amid substantive advances in personal health care at the national level, heterogeneous patterns for individual causes in given countries or territories suggest that few places have consistently achieved optimal health-care access and quality across health-system functions and therapeutic areas. This is especially evident in middle-SDI countries, many of which have recently undergone or are currently experiencing epidemiological transitions. The HAQ Index, if paired with other measures of health-system characteristics such as intervention coverage, could provide a robust avenue for tracking progress on universal health coverage and identifying local priorities for strengthening personal health-care quality and access throughout the world. Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) play a very crucial role in driving economic growth, innovation, and job creation. Under Vision 2030, Saudi Arabia aims to position Riyadh as a strategic hub for SMEs, attracting both domestic and international entrepreneurs, investors, and the skilled labors. Riyadh’s geographic location also makes it accessible to the various regions within Saudi Arabia, creating a central node from which SMEs can reach wider markets both domestically and internationally. The Saudi government is investing in different infrastructure and urban development projects to support Riyadh as SMEs hub. For instance, the recently completed Riyadh Metro project worth 25 billion USD intends to foster a greater level of connectivity within the city and ease the access to essential services not only for the common masses but also for the businesses. Previously, SMEs in Saudi Arabia were confronted with the challenges, such as lack of access to financing, regulatory hurdles, and shortage of labor. Often, these barriers kept them from growing to the extent that they could potentially compete with the well-capitalized state enterprises and the multinational corporations. To address these challenges the Saudi Government introduced General Authority for SMEs “Monsha’at” with the aim of increasing SME’s contribution to the GDP by 35% by 2030. In this article we have thoroughly discussed the strategic importance of Riyadh as SMEs hub along with the different challenges that SMEs are facing. Finally, the article contributes on the possible policy routes for supporting and promoting the SMEs in Saudi Arabia.

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an inflammatory disease associated with adverse effects: including depression, anxiety, fatigue, which may affect physical activity and the quality of life (QoL) among patients with MS (pwMS). This study aims to assess the prevalence of depression, anxiety, and fatigue among pwMS who have no physical disability in Saudi Arabia, and demonstrate any correlation between these factors and physical activity as well as the QoL. A cross-sectional study was conducted in the Neuroimmunology outpatient clinics in King Fahad Medical City (KFMC) and King Saud University Medical City (KSUMC) in Riyadh City, KSA. The Arabic version of the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) was used to measure anxiety and depression levels. The HADS scores were then categorized into three levels according to the total points: normal (0-7 points), borderline (7-10 points), and anxiety/depression (11 - 21 points). The Arabic version of the Fatigue Severity Scale (FSS) was used to measure fatigue (cut-off point ≥5). The physical activity was measured by the Arabic version of the short form of the International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ), which measure time spent walking, moderate- and vigorous-intensity physical activity of at least 10 minutes duration. The QoL was also measured by the Arabic version of the EuroQOL five-dimensional (EQ-5D-3L) instrument (i.e., mobility, self-care, usual activities, pain/discomfort, and anxiety/depression). A total of 323 pwMS participated in this study, 83 had scores that indicated anxiety (25.7%) and 44 had depression (13.6%). The majority of patients had scores with the normal range of depression and anxiety (70% and 57% respectively). The mean of EuroQol Group visual analogue scale (EQ-VAS) score was 80.43 (SD=19.8). 156 (48.3%) out of 323 pwMS reported fatigue while the remainder had no fatigue (n=167, 51.7%). The results indicate that only 143 patients (44.3%) had participated in vigorous physical activity during the last 70 days, with a median of 3 days per week (IQR= 5-3) and a median of 60 minutes per day 0 (Interquartile range: IQR = 60-30). Only 149 patients (49.2%) had patricpated in moderate physical activities during the previous week with a median of 3 days per week (IQR = 5-3) and a median of 40 minutes per day (IQR = 60-30). 194 patients had participated in walking activities (60.0%) with a median of 5 days per week (IQR = 7-3) and a median of 45 minutes per day (IQR = 60-30). The results revealed that fatigue was positively correlated with depression (r = 0.407, p-value < 0.001) and anxiety (r = 0.289, p-value < 0.001). The current study shows depression, anxiety, and fatigue tend to be correlated and clustered together among pwMS in our cohort. However, fatigue is not associated with the intensity of physical activity undertaken. The results of this study are important for the improvement of the clinical management of MS patients.