On Oct. 1, the Expo 2020 site officially reopened in Dubai, six months after it came to a temporary end in March for reconstruction purposes. Making its initial debut on Oct. 1, 2021, Expo 2020 brought 200 exquisite pavilions in front of its worldwide spectators, representing the histories and cultures of 192 participating countries. This time around, Expo 2020 is relaunched as District 2020, a mixed-use sustainable city.

With over seven billion USD in investment and 240 million hours of labor put in, Expo 2020 is an unquestionably costly project, which, aside from furthering global recognition of the nation, is anticipated to justify its worth in the long term. Its impacted economic boost to the UAE was a whopping 33.4 billion USD. In its wake, District 2020 — branded as the UAE’s first “15-minute city” — is a necessary breakthrough in the passage to the fruition of the Dubai 2040 Urban Master Plan. That said, beyond the universal certitude of its importance affirmed by the media, how significant is District 2020 to the overall urban development of Dubai?

With regards to the urban development in Dubai, District 2020 reinforces the adoption of sustainability through buildings and transportation systems. District 2020, with 121 buildings certified by US Green Building Council under LEED — a global green building rating system — contends with the common perplexity that the built environment faces, which is being traditionally responsible for nearly 50 percent of annual global CO2 emissions. District 2020 brings sustainable means of transportation in two ways: reducing gasoline car usage to curb carbon emissions while giving rise to a more widely embraced public transportation system.

The three pillars in optimizing a transportation system, according to Professor Samer Madanat, Program Head of Urbanization at New York University Abu Dhabi, include pollution alleviation, management and operations and urban density.

The primary weakness that District 2020 confronts in terms of transportation is the pollution emitted by private cars: a 15-minute city enables close proximity among amenities, businesses and residentials within 15 minutes of walking or cycling. By featuring ample jogging pathways, pedestrian walkways and bike tracks, District 2020 intends to integrate walking and cycling into residents’ lifestyles, emboldening residents to make efforts towards other alternatives.

In the discussion of transportation alternatives, an obstacle that Dubai faces lies in an underpenetrated public transportation system, constrained by lower urban density in comparison to cities like Paris, where the concept of a 15-minute city was implemented with grand success. If we were to contrast Paris, a city with high urban density, to Los Angeles, an illustration put forward by Professor Madanet, the city with low density often experiences a higher difficulty in substituting private cars with public transportation.

Dubai is in between the two extremes. Despite the fall in urban density driven by soaring prices on coastal villas, District 2020, along with four other urban centers, proposes a fundamental uplift to the urban density. These centers, which sit next to each other under the Dubai 2040 Urban Master Plan, would collectively form a coastal urban system, which catalyzes a wider application of public transportation. On top of that, to further encourage public transportation for longer-distance traveling, Dubai could expand the coverage of intra-city bus rapid transits in suburban areas and intercity light rail transits to nearby cities.

By no means is it to say that the usage of private cars could be replaced entirely. After all, there is hardly any alternative more appealing than private cars for the practicality of arriving exactly where you’d like to be. Yet District 2020 is doing its utmost in minimizing the footprint through electrification. Range anxiety, a term describing drivers’ fear of insufficient energy storage and a hindrance to electrification, is addressed by District 2020 through the adoption of emerging autonomous vehicles and charging stations.

As District 2020 is granted a new identity, shifting from an exhibition to a pivotal urban centre in full functionality, its contributions to the urban development of Dubai are only commendable if it could also fulfill its duty of being economically self-sustaining. Capitalized on Expo 2020’s upshot in captivating foreign interests, District 2020 is set to host 85 startups and small businesses for its first business tenants. Moving forward, critical in putting the urban system into coherent motion, would District 2020 spark a consistent population influx and further Dubai’s urban momentum?

The ease of transportation, along with the interdependence of being a 15-minute city and a smart city, translates to a notable ​​leap in the quality of living for residents. Established as a free zone favorable to commercial and retail tenants, District 2020 sets forth an undeviating influx of businesses to create jobs. With the promise of the new visa rules in effect since Oct. 3, the upsurge in businesses is well expected to embark on the relocation of employees and high net-worth individuals, who nurture the sustainable economic growth of the district through everlasting consumption and investments.

Before concluding whether the conversion makes good use of the land, one has to recognize the lack of alternative options. As a matter of fact, for many world expos, a denouement in being utterly dismantled is oftentimes inescapable. Contrary to the ubiquitous high opportunity cost for the other world expos, built ground-up from a blank canvas of dessert, Expo 2020 is deprived of the pressure to be demolished and reconstructed into something more profit-driven. District 2020, availed of its forethoughtful planning, is one of the pioneering cases whose transformation into long-term use is viably carried onto a great blueprint. While there certainly are difficulties to grapple with in delivering the envisioned prospects — a pragmatic heat venting system to render walking and cycling feasible under extreme weather, for instance — District 2020 serves as a fertile ground for fruitful contemplations on how future world expos could position themselves after the show ends.