A review of advanced industrial technology as an approach to developing industrial desert
communities in arid countries of the Middle East is offered. Appropriateness of the new
approach for the development of the physical and the social environments of these countries
on the national, on the desert regional, and on the desert community levels is assessed. A
close examination of the Saudi Arabian experiment in developing Jubail and Yanbu industrial
communities is presented. The ability of these desert cities to survive and to evolve into
permanent human settlements is tested and alternative sources for their sustenance are
explored. A model process which is based on an advanced, systematic and comprehensive
approach to development technology is proposed for the development of a permanent desert
community in an arid region. A framework of requisites for successful development of
permanent human settlements in adverse desert locations is proposed.