‘Shariah preserves environment’

As part of the inauguration ceremony to kickstart this year’s International Environmental Cities forum, Municipal and Rural Affairs Minister Prince Mansour bin Miteb stressed the role of Islamic Shariah in environmental preservation.
The event, held on Sunday, was organized by the Riyadh municipality in cooperation with the Dubai municipality and the Environmental Center for Arab Towns, and was attended by international experts and high-ranking Saudis.
Prince Mansour pointed out that landscape architecture should be based on a practical design for buildings, environmental friendly and compatible with a sustainable urban growth.
“That has been achieved in Riyadh, in the embodiment of the concept of landscape architecture through the implementation of an environmentally friendly city, by creating parks, gardens and facilities that have met the terms of the environmental accreditation projects,” he said.
The three-day event, held this year under the theme, “Landscape architecture to support sustainable development for cities” at the King Fahd Cultural Center, aims to share the best practices and successful projects among the specialized agencies in the landscape architecture field.
During the conference, lecturers will discuss the latest scientific experiments and researches dealing with design and landscape. Another topic that will be addressed during the event are the challenges of modern software applications in the field of landscape architecture.
Speaking on the occasion, Ibrahim Al-Dajeen, acting mayor of Riyadh, said the conference will also explore strategies to achieve a balance between urban development and environmental protection.
The conference’s main goals, Al-Dajeen explained, are to raise environmental awareness in the Arab world and to display the best international practices in the field of landscape architecture and urban planning.
As part of this year’s conference, a panel of experts will show presentations on landscape architecture as an approach to urban planning and sustainable cities.