From Cadastre to Canopy: Assessing Land Administration Readiness for Nature-Based Solutions in Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia has committed to one of the world’s largest urban greening programmes, yet whether its land administration system can hold, value, and sustain the resulting assets remains unexamined. This study assesses that readiness under Vision 2030 and SDG 11, with Riyadh as the delivery case. Forty-one legal, institutional and policy instruments were analysed against a purpose-built rubric, the NbS Land Administration Readiness Assessment, which crosses Land Management Paradigm functions with Framework for Effective Land Administration pathways and nature-based solution requirements. The indicator profile is uneven: capabilities for creating green infrastructure average 2.25 of 4; capabilities for recording, valuing and sustaining it average 1.38. The summary index is 41.7 percent, ranging 29.2 to 54.2 across scenarios, so the band label is less robust than the profile shape. No green-specific registrable interest, no green amenity adjustment and no statutory maintenance duty were identified in the analysed corpus, and the strengthened white land fee is hypothecated to housing. The corpus is English-language-only and scoring was performed by a single assessor, so these are non-identifications rather than demonstrated nonexistence. That states may build green infrastructure before becoming able to institutionalise it is offered as a proposition for comparative testing.