Adapting global urban resilience frameworks to the Saudi context: toward climate-responsive policy solutions under Vision 2030

Urban resilience is increasingly recognized as a critical pillar for sustainable development and a necessary capacity for navigating sustainability transitions, particularly in rapidly urbanizing and environmentally stressed regions such as Saudi Arabia. However, global resilience frameworks often lack contextual sensitivity to the unique sociocultural, climatic, and governance characteristics of Gulf cities. This study bridges that gap by systematically adapting internationally recognized resilience practices—from Singapore, Melbourne, Barcelona, and Copenhagen—and integrating lessons from Gulf Cooperation Council urban strategies to the Saudi urban context under Vision 2030. Moving beyond generic policy transfer, the study employs a comparative thematic analysis grounded in a localized resilience framework encompassing absorptive, adaptive, and transformative capacities, and introduces an operationalized transferability index based on climatic, governance, sociocultural, and technical-economic criteria. The research critiques the applicability of prevailing resilience models, identifies key enabling and inhibiting factors for implementation in high-climate stress environments, and synthesizes cross-case insights into a transferable Saudi Urban Resilience Model. Methodological rigor is ensured through triangulated content analysis of over 100 documents, including regional policy frameworks, and structured comparison matrices. The findings offer not only theoretical refinement of urban resilience in arid regions through its integration with transitions frameworks, but also practical, scalable strategies for operationalizing resilience. These are illustrated through a detailed pilot implementation scenario for Jeddah, complete with Key Performance Indicators and risk mitigation strategies. The study provides a critical evidence base for policymakers and contributes to the broader discourse on contextual policy transfer and sustainable urban transitions in arid regions.