Abstract

With growing urbanization and significant expansion of cities, public health has risen as a primary focus of sustainable development. Our built environment can be one of the main causes of diseases; however, with the right design guidelines, the city can easily promote physical activity and physiological wellbeing. Recent research states that connecting waterfronts with the urban structure of the city contributes to revitalizing waterfront efficiency and supports physical activities along the waterfront. Accordingly, this reflects the importance of providing smooth and easy access to the waterfront, linking it to the city structure. Moreover, this action has large benefits on the socio-economic level of the city via providing a motivational anchor for developers to renovate the city’s vacant properties. In addition, many social opportunities can be achieved as a result of these development actions. Recently, Jeddah city had a huge ongoing urban development and a renovated waterfront connecting the whole shoreline to the adjacent urban areas. Accordingly, does the “connectivity” to Jeddah’s waterfront support and promote physical activities? Regarding this question, the research will investigate the ability of the urban areas attached to Jeddah’s waterfront to act as a link between the city and the waterfront. The results of this study revealed that traditions and culture have an obvious effect on the poor connectivity through the spread of private properties along most of the urban areas adjacent to Jeddah’s waterfront. Besides, the urban structure of these areas creates an obstruction for supporting the link with the waterfront. Thus, any development plans that support physical activities on Jeddah’s waterfront should take into consideration, at the same time, improving the connectivity of adjacent urban areas.