For decades, Saudi Arabia has been experiencing a remarkably high growth rate of its urban population as well as an ongoing rural exodus towards the cities. The city of Riyadh in particular is subject to extreme immigration and development pressure. The negative consequences from this development are already apparent today and the trend predictable: excessive use of land, congestion of infrastructure and supply systems in the metropolis, worsening of spatial disparities and weakening of rural regions in the surrounding area. The objective of the »Strategic Plan for the Arriyadh Region« (SPAR) is to establish a regional development framework and settlement pattern which supplements Metropolitan Arriyadh and helps to relieve the pressure it faces. Within the GTZ-led multidisciplinary SPAR-Team, comprising experts in the fields of economics, environment, governance, transportation planning, demography and tourism, AS+P was responsible for the analysis of development potentials in the region (»Regional Land Capability Assessment«) as well as for a concept to strengthen selected urban areas and establish attractive alternative cities (»Regional Settlement Development Strategy«).