WaiMAPRed Sea coastal development – Jeddah area (demonstration)
North of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia — A 600 ha mixed-use district scenario on the Red Sea coastal plain: land budget, utilities, indicative cost, solar resource and rooftop PV, flood exposure, urban growth and access — screened with the WaiMAP engines.
Purpose
Show how a developer or planner screens a large coastal site in one workflow before commissioning surveys: what fits, what it needs, what it costs and where the risks are.
Scope
Site screening and a development scenario (concept level). Not included: terrain / earthworks quantities (no DEM on the build machine), road routing, coastal hydrology, land, permits.
Technical challenges
- A large site with no survey yet — decisions on open data only
- Hot climate: cooling dominates the power demand
- Rapid urban growth around the city changes access and land value
- Flood exposure must be screened before any layout is fixed
Input data given to WaiMAP
Every input with its source and licence. Open atlas data load automatically; the rest was entered by hand.
| Input | Source and licence | How |
|---|---|---|
| Solar resource (GHI, PVOUT, air temperature) | Global Solar Atlas 2.0 (World Bank Group, data by Solargis) (CC BY 4.0) | automatic (atlas on the calculation server) |
| Wind speed at 150 m | Global Wind Atlas 3 (DTU, World Bank Group) (CC BY 4.0) | automatic |
| Population density 2025 | GHS-POP R2023A, European Commission, JRC (CC BY 4.0) | automatic |
| Built-up surface 1975–2030 | GHS-BUILT-S R2023A, European Commission, JRC (CC BY 4.0) | automatic |
| River flood depth, 100-year return period | JRC / Copernicus Emergency Management Service – GloFAS flood hazard map, 100-year return period (CC BY 4.0) | automatic |
| Site boundary (600 ha) and target population | drawn / entered by the user | manual input |
| Planning standards and unit rates | WaiMasterplan defaults (typical international values) | automatic, editable |
Automatic workflow vs manual input
| Step | Automatic / manual | Engine |
|---|---|---|
| Site and scenario | Manual input | WaiMasterplan (assets/js/wai-masterplan.js) |
| Utilities and indicative cost | Automatic | WaiMasterplan demand and cost model |
| Solar resource and rooftop PV | Automatic | Atlas (worker/atlas.py) + pvlib through the worker's /pv/yield |
| Flood and site screening | Automatic | Atlas statistics over the site polygon + WaiMAP Solar Suitability (worker/derived.py) |
| Urban growth | Automatic | WaiMAP Urban Growth (worker/derived.py growth_area) |
| Access and logistics | Automatic | Straight-line distances (this demonstration); truck routing with Valhalla runs in the app |
| Terrain, grading and earthworks | Runs in the app (not in this demonstration) | Terrain Design Studio / WaiEarthworks / WaiMassHaul (in the app) |
Calculation steps — engines and methods
The results below are what the engines returned on 2026-10-12 23:32 UTC. Steps that need data the build machine did not have are marked and carry no numbers.
Site and scenario Manual input
Site boundary drawn (600 ha, 1.4 : 1 rectangle); target 45,000 residents, 5 per household, hot climate. Programme from planning standards → land budget → block grid → land use by rule → GFA, dwellings, jobs.
- Programme needs ≈ 358 ha gross on a 600 ha site — fits
- 9,000 dwellings · 16,350 jobs · 1,985,250 m² GFA · 238.3 ha open space
- Program fits the site: PASS — needs ≈ 358 ha gross (incl. 25 % roads) on a 600 ha site
- School walking distance: PASS — 100 % of residential blocks within 800 m of a school
- Open space: PASS — 53.0 m² per resident (target 12)
- Density: PASS — 75 people / gross ha · 9000 dwellings
- Cooling: PASS — 68,974 TR — district cooling (3 plant(s) of ~30,000 TR) saves ~30–40 % of cooling power vs split units
Utilities and indicative cost Automatic
Unit demands per land use (W/m², TR of cooling per m² GFA, water, wastewater, waste, trips, parking) and typical building / infrastructure cost per m².
- Peak power 64.2 MW · cooling 68,974 TR · water 19,805 m³/day · 3 substations of 60 MVA
- Indicative development cost USD 2,188 million (buildings 1,816, infrastructure 300, landscape 71) — typical unit rates, Class 5
- Phasing: phase 1 — 78 blocks, 132 ha; phase 2 — 128 blocks, 216 ha; phase 3 — 60 blocks, 101 ha
Solar resource and rooftop PV Automatic
pvlib 0.16.1 clear-sky (Ineichen–Perez, Linke turbidity climatology) scaled ×0.979 to the Global Solar Atlas annual GHI 2251 kWh/m² at the site; Erbs decomposition; air temperature 28.2 °C (GSA long-term mean, constant); wind 1 m/s. Rooftop arrays at 15° tilt, DC/AC 1.2, 10 % other losses.
- GHI 2,251 kWh/m²/yr, PVOUT 1,840 kWh/kWp/yr, air temperature 28.2 °C (Global Solar Atlas at the site centre)
- Rooftop PV 43.9 MWp → 83.2 GWh/yr, specific yield 1,894 kWh/kWp, PR 0.8 (pvlib 0.16.1)
- Independent atlas value: GSA PVOUT 1,840 kWh/kWp at optimum tilt vs pvlib 1,894 kWh/kWp at 15° with 10 % losses
Flood and site screening Automatic
JRC RP100 depth statistics inside the boundary (nodata inside the extent = not flooded); suitability score with re-normalised weights (no slope without a DEM).
- RP100 flood: 11.4 % of the site flooded, maximum depth 0.32 m
- Solar Suitability at the centre: 97 / 100 (missing input: slope)
- Population 2025 around the site: mean 0 persons/km²
Urban growth Automatic
Built-up m² per epoch from GHS-BUILT-S (share × cell area), inside the site and within 30 km of the city centre.
- 30 km around the city: 47.1 km² built-up added 2000 → 2025 (+30.9 %), 119.2 km² added 1975 → 2025
- Inside the site: 0 m² added 2000 → 2025
Access and logistics Automatic
Great-circle distance from the site centre to the main hubs. Road distance, vehicle limits and abnormal loads need the Logistics module with a routing service — not available on the build machine.
- Jeddah Islamic Port (approx. centre): 59.1 km straight line
- King Abdulaziz International Airport (approx. centre): 35.8 km straight line
- Jeddah city centre (Al Balad, approx.): 57.7 km straight line
Terrain, grading and earthworks Runs in the app
Needs elevation data (the global DEM or the member's survey). The build machine had no DEM, so no cut / fill numbers are published here — none are invented.
- In WaiMAP: draw the platform → Terrain Design Studio → balanced level / best-fit plane → mass haul optimisation (exact SSP solver) → quantities and haul cost.
Maps, alternatives and figures
Rendered from the engine results; every figure carries the WaiMAP stamp and the attribution of each visible layer.
3D: no 3D render is published for this demonstration; in the app, Project 3D shows towers, PV tables, buildings and point clouds of your own project (Pro and above).
Tables
Land budget by use (masterplan engine)
| Land use | Area (ha) |
|---|---|
| Parks / open space | 211.9 |
| Residential — villas | 55.1 |
| Residential — townhouses | 50.0 |
| Residential — mid-rise | 31.4 |
| Schools | 23.7 |
| Retail / mixed use | 6.3 |
| Residential — high-rise | 5.8 |
| Utilities | 5.1 |
| Worship | 4.8 |
| Offices / employment | 4.1 |
| Civic / community | 1.7 |
| Health | 1.2 |
Site statistics from the atlas (inside the 600 ha boundary)
| Layer | Mean | Min | Max | Units | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Specific PV power output (PVOUT) | 1,840 | 1,839 | 1,840 | kWh/kWp/yr | Global Solar Atlas 2.0 (Solargis) |
| Global horizontal irradiation (GHI) | 2,252 | 2,251 | 2,252 | kWh/m²/yr | Global Solar Atlas 2.0 (Solargis) |
| Air temperature (TEMP) | 28.2 | 28.2 | 28.2 | °C | Global Solar Atlas 2.0 (Solargis) |
| Mean wind speed at 150 m | 6.19 | 6.18 | 6.20 | m/s | Global Wind Atlas 3 (DTU) |
| Population density 2025 (GHS-POP) | 0 | 0 | 0 | persons/km² | GHS-POP R2023A, European Commission, Joint Research Centre (JRC) |
| River flood depth, 100-year return period | 0.02 | 0.00 | 0.32 | m | JRC / Copernicus Emergency Management Service (CEMS) – GloFAS flood hazard maps, 100-year return period |
| Built-up surface 2000 (GHS-BUILT-S) | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | % built-up | GHS-BUILT-S R2023A, European Commission, JRC |
| Built-up surface 2025 (GHS-BUILT-S) — projection | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 | % built-up | GHS-BUILT-S R2023A, European Commission, JRC |
Rooftop PV monthly energy (pvlib)
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| MWh | 6,247 | 6,193 | 7,334 | 7,398 | 7,592 | 7,303 | 7,526 | 7,524 | 7,142 | 6,934 | 6,068 | 5,906 |
Checks, warnings and limitations
- No elevation data on the build machine: terrain, grading and earthworks are not quantified in this demonstration (they run in the app on the DEM).
- Flood screening uses the JRC river flood map (RP100, ~250 m); coastal storm surge and wadi flash floods are not in this layer — a site-specific hydrology study is needed.
- Masterplan costs use typical unit rates (Class 5, −50 % / +100 %); land, permits and off-site infrastructure are excluded.
- Rooftop PV assumes the masterplan's usable roof area; structural capacity, shading and grid export rules are not checked.
How a stakeholder uses it
- Developer / master developerTests the programme against the site before buying surveys; compares scenarios
- Utility and district-cooling providerReads the peak demand, cooling load and substation count for early capacity planning
- InvestorSees the indicative cost, phasing and the open risks (flood, earthworks still to quantify)
- Planner / municipalityChecks density, open space and school walking distance against standards
Time and effort
Engine computation time for the whole story on the build machine: 0.7 s (measured on 2026-10-12 23:32 UTC; Intel(R) Xeon(R) Processor @ 2.80GHz, 2 cores). Data preparation, review and reporting time are not included and are not estimated here.
Downloads
- Sample report (PDF)Drawn by the WaiMAP report engine with the official cover — design status "Concept", approval status "Pre-feasibility only", labelled as a demonstration.
- Calculation summary (CSV)Every key value with its unit, engine and source.
- Demonstration geometry (GeoJSON)Opens read-only on the WaiMAP map: Open in WaiMAP.
Try it on your own project
Video coming soonReserved for approved real project material related to Red Sea coastal development – Jeddah area (demonstration). No real project material is published here yet; nothing on this page describes a real project.