Abstract

Urban mobility systems are central to smart city performance; however, in many rapidly developing cities, mobility services remain fragmented across agencies, platforms, and datasets. In the United Arab Emirates (UAE), cities such as Dubai and Abu Dhabi have made significant investments in digital infrastructure and intelligent transport solutions. Despite this progress, existing mobility applications continue to operate in functional silos, limiting real-time adaptability and cross-domain integration. Current platforms primarily focus on transport coordination and congestion avoidance, with limited integration of broader urban datasets such as building access schedules, environmental conditions, and localized service availability. This research addresses the absence of a unified, context-aware Integrated Mobility System (IMS) tailored to the UAE. It proposes a congestion-responsive, cross-domain mobility framework that integrates multimodal transport data, real-time traffic conditions, weather inputs, urban operational schedules, and commercial intelligence into a single adaptive platform. Guided by a pragmatic research philosophy, the study adopts a methodology combining system review, dataset mapping, conceptual architecture design, and feasibility assessment. The findings indicate that while technical integration through APIs and data aggregation mechanisms is achievable, the primary challenges lie in governance fragmentation, lack of data standardization, and limited institutional coordination. The proposed system introduces a Congestion-Responsive Urban Opportunity Module, which reconceptualizes travel delay as a redistributable urban resource rather than solely a negative externality. Through the application of contextual filters and adaptive decision logic, the IMS extends traditional Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS) models toward a more holistic and responsive urban mobility framework. The study concludes that a UAE-centric IMS is both technically feasible and strategically aligned with national smart city and digital transformation objectives. It contributes to the smart mobility field by proposing a context-aware integration model and outlining a scalable governance approach for unified urban data ecosystems. Recommendations include district-level pilot implementation, centralized data governance frameworks, and structured inter-agency API standardization. Future research should focus on real-world deployment, user adoption behavior, and the integration of advanced predictive analytics within the proposed system.

Publication Date

5-2026

Document Type

Thesis

Student Type

Graduate

Degree Name

Professional Studies (MS)

Department, Program, or Center

Graduate Programs & Research

Advisor

Ioannis Karamitsos

Campus

RIT Dubai

Download

Share

COinS