Many science fiction films that we have watched have shown us a sneak peek into what our future cities might look like. Well, Saudi Arabia could soon give us a quick glimpse at a futuristic metropolis. They are getting closer to NEOM City, a future city with no traffic, no streets, and no net carbon emissions. Saudi Arabia is reportedly pouring $500 billion into a utopian city named "NEOM," the vision of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, in an effort to largely disassociate itself from its heavy dependence on oil and minimize the country's dependency on petroleum products. Neom is credited for setting the bar for sustainable living on an international scale. The first three characters of its name, "NEO," are taken from a Latin term that denotes "new," while the fourth letter, "M," stands for "Mostaqbal," which in Arabic means "future," as per Al Arabiya.
On the Red Sea coast in the province of Tabuk's northwest, NEOM is a distinctive, very central geographic position. It aligns with Saudi Vision 2030, a strategic plan meant to diversify Saudi Arabia's economy, lessen dependency on oil, and expand public sectors including health, education, infrastructure, leisure, and tourism. NEOM will support the development of skyscrapers that will blend commercial, retail, and residential space from the desert to the Red Sea shore. Additionally, it will include smart cities, ports, a network of airports, including one of the biggest international airports in the world, industrial districts, research institutions, and facilities for sports and entertainment. So plan your trip to Saudi Arabia, book Saudi Airline tickets, and learn more about how the future world is shaping up.
Proposed Ideas At NEOM
Build The Largest structures in the world
One idea is to build the tallest skyscrapers in the world as part of the NEOM megacity. Two towers that are around 500 meters tall and have a horizontal spread of tens of kilometers are reportedly under construction, The buildings would extend from the Red Sea shore to the desert. They intend to surpass Dubai's Burj Khalifa, the world's highest man-made structure.
Use of renewable energy to build a desalination plant
An agreement was recently reached by the NEOM subsidiary ENOWA, ITOCHU of Japan, and Veolia of France to build a unique desalination plant. When construction is done in 2025, the plant will have a daily production capacity of 500,000 cubic meters of desalinated water or around 30% of NEOM's total expected water needs. This new facility will demonstrate ENOWA's efforts to provide a reliable and ample water supply for the residential, commercial, and industrial sectors in NEOM.
TROJENA & The Line
Two significant projects that have caught the attention of the whole planet are "The Line," a projected smart linear city, and "TROJENA," a new year-round tourist destination. One of NEOM's main projects, The Line, will be an entirely green, cognitive metropolis powered by AI. The development will be built on cutting-edge technology and will put a significant focus on essential features such as walkability, livability, health, and wellness in order to improve the lives of its one million people.
The Line will also be supported by a ground-breaking, fully integrated subterranean building that will contain all required utilities, networks, and modes of transit. A zero-carbon, ultra-high-speed mass transportation system that will require only about 20 minutes to finish every trip will be used by residents to get around the metropolitan area.
TROJENA, on the other hand, will make a substantial contribution to regional tourism and serve as a model for how Saudi Arabia is creating destinations focused on its geographic and natural variety. This innovative idea would guarantee that mountain tourism will become a new source of income to aid the Kingdom's economic diversification while still preserving the Kingdom's natural resources for future generations. It will feature distinctive architecture, NEOM mountain scenery that coexists peacefully with tourist attractions built inside of it, and it will provide a novel and unparalleled adventure and outdoor tourism experience which reflects the way people will live, work, and have fun in NEOM in the future.
Some other interesting facts about NEOM
Returning to NEOM, it is described as a "living laboratory" comprising towns and cities, ports and industrial zones, research institutes, sports and entertainment facilities, and tourism attractions. It will feature a number of technological and environmentally friendly innovations, as listed below:
Solar power, wind power, and green hydrogen will all be used to power it entirely. As one of the few locations in the world where it can be generated competitively and in big numbers, NEOM will be one of the top producers of green hydrogen. The main goal of Saudi Arabia's master plan is to boost non-oil earnings and draw in international capital with enticing ideas to promote economic expansion.
With a focus on water desalination, NEOM will be a regional powerhouse in the production and storage of water. Through a cutting-edge Internet of Water architecture, NEOM's water distribution network will be fully interconnected, allowing it to remove wastewater while distributing high-quality drinking water and recycled water. Real-time controls will be available for intelligent irrigation, leak detection, and water quality monitoring.
The Intelligent City, 90 percent of the data gathered will enable infrastructure capacity to be increased beyond the 1 percent utilized by current smart cities thanks to artificial intelligence.
The question of whether such a cutting-edge concept genuinely fits with the socio-economic realities of the nation has to be settled, even if the site is practically being prepared for building to start and to greet the first inhabitants by 2024.
The Motivation Behind NEOM City Arabia Saudi
10,000 square miles of shoreline and desolate desert will be covered by the $500 billion city. The "world's brightest brains and best skills" are allegedly welcomed to the highest-paying positions in the most livable metropolis in the whole planet. The prince also intends to build a region with the goal of assisting the Saudi Kingdom's economic diversification. Most significantly, it will stimulate demand in developing sectors like biotechnology, advanced manufacturing, and renewable energy.
