Urban design is a practice intended to help shape cities and towns while establishing and implementing plans to allow for future growth. Common areas of study for students of urban design include architectural design, urban planning, highway engineering and landscape design.

The United Arab Emirates is a federation of seven emirates on the eastern side of the Arabian peninsula, at the entrance to the Persian Gulf. Much of the work force in the UAE are foreign expatriates - hence the country's population makeup being so diverse, with Emirati citizens being a minority in their own country.