ENHANCING FIRE AND LIFE SAFETY RESILIENCE OF CRITICAL INFRASTRUCTURE IN SAUDI ARABIA: A RISK-BASED ENGINEERING FRAMEWORK FOR VISION 2030

The fact that Saudi Arabia is concentrating on developing and modernising its transport, energy, utility, healthcare, digital, and high-occupancy facilities means that fire and life safety have to be taken into account if continuous operation is to be maintained and regulatory requirements are to be met.This study presents a risk-based engineering method designed to enhance the fire resistance of important infrastructure as part of Vision 2030. In order to obtain peer-reviewed, reliable evidence published between 2020 and 2025, a structured critical review was conducted using the PRISMA method. The evidence was examined in six closely related areas: the definition of hazard and scenario; passive and active protection; life safety and evacuation; emergency response; functional continuity and recovery; and digital intelligence and governance. Existing research shows that mere compliance with codes is not enough; resilience demands the selection of credible scenarios, an understanding of how the various systems interact, taking human reliability into account, having an effective emergency command structure, setting clearly defined recovery objectives, and being able to learn from operational data. Research carried out in Saudi Arabia also points out the advantages of carrying out structured risk assessments and maintaining consistent fire-safety evaluations, even though the 2024 Saudi codes provide a solid prescriptive basis for alarms, suppression, smoke control, egress, and responder access.