Permanent project revision

Masdar City

Revision 2026-08-15-cost-baseline · effective 2026-08-15

Superseded. A later revision exists: 2026-08-20-source-dates-b3 →

unreviewed

Created the first structured Evidence Passport with 1 claim and 5 source dossiers.

sha256:47b66c5bb78c81ed7a346fd615f7df83a67439e4cdea6b511a270bef71461f48

All revisions → Current entity page →

Change set

add /evidencePassport — Added claim-level evidence mapping and source dossiers.
add /revisionHistory — Established a permanent, hash-addressed baseline revision.

1: of 1 claims mapped
5: source dossiers
2: publication dates recorded
0: archives linked
0: exact locators
0: content captures hashed

Claims, one by one

The text below is copied verbatim from the published record. Each claim names the source dossiers that carry it; caveats stay attached to the claim they qualify.

Claim 1 clm-4d607cf5936b11f4 descriptive

short-lived driverless PRT pods

Published field: snippet · verbatim
Mapping: mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this passport
What the mapping says: The National reports that the cost review which cut Masdar City's price tag to $16bn achieved its savings by abandoning 'a costly pod transit system', along with the raised podium design and the plan to install solar panels on all roofs. The citywide pod network was therefore dropped from the plan two years after launch; the short demonstration line that was built is what remained of it.
Caveat: The article dates the decision, not the closure of the line that was built. It is a newspaper report of a company briefing, not a Masdar document.

Sources carrying this claim

The National (press) — Masdar City clips another $2.5bn from price tag, 1 December 2010

Source dossiers and revision state

This layer records what is known about each source, what is still missing, and the exact snapshot this page is rendering. A missing date, archive or hash stays visible as missing.

unreviewed Revision 2026-08-15-cost-baseline effective 2026-08-15 · created 2026-08-15

Awaiting operator and domain-expert review; publication of this revision implies neither.

sha256:47b66c5bb78c81ed7a346fd615f7df83a67439e4cdea6b511a270bef71461f48

Revision history → Permanent version link → Machine-readable record → Evidence Constitution →

1: of 1 claims mapped
5: source dossiers
2: publication dates recorded
0: archives linked
0: exact locators
0: content captures hashed

Governance facts carried by the record

Operator: Masdar City
Actor types: utility
Funding model: Not recorded
Funding description: Not recorded
Cost: Announced in 2008 at US$22 billion. Masdar cut the estimate twice during 2010 — first by 10–15%, then by a further $2.5bn to $16bn, a total fall of $6bn or 27% — by dropping the raised podium design, rooftop solar across all buildings and the driverless pod transit system. No account of what was actually spent has been published, and only a fraction of the masterplan was built.
Ownership: Not recorded
Decision rights: Not recorded
Exit conditions: Not recorded

5 source dossiers

Masdar City (operator) masdarcity.ae · background

Open original source ↗

Stable source ID: src-797a8b834edaab02
Publisher: Name not classified · masdarcity.ae
Type / language: web-page · language not classified
Published: Not recorded
Updated: Not recorded
Source last checked: No source-level check date
Record last verified: 2026-08-15
Dossier created: 2026-08-15
Retrieved copy: No local capture recorded
Archive: No archived copy linked
Content hash: No captured content hash
Locator: Open the recorded source note
Official site of the organisation running the project.
Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Claims linked: Background source; no baseline claim points here

CNN / The Conversation (press) cnn.com · background

Open original source ↗

Stable source ID: src-5047e7f32bc1e76e
Publisher: Name not classified · cnn.com
Type / language: web-page · language not classified
Published: Not recorded
Updated: Not recorded
Source last checked: No source-level check date
Record last verified: 2026-08-15
Dossier created: 2026-08-15
Retrieved copy: No local capture recorded
Archive: No archived copy linked
Content hash: No captured content hash
Locator: Open the recorded source note
News coverage of the project and its ambitions.
Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Claims linked: Background source; no baseline claim points here

Centre for Public Impact (research) centreforpublicimpact.org · background

Open original source ↗

Stable source ID: src-afbfbd5f3671d686
Publisher: Name not classified · centreforpublicimpact.org
Type / language: web-page · language not classified
Published: Not recorded
Updated: Not recorded
Source last checked: No source-level check date
Record last verified: 2026-08-15
Dossier created: 2026-08-15
Retrieved copy: No local capture recorded
Archive: No archived copy linked
Content hash: No captured content hash
Locator: Open the recorded source note
Case study documenting the scaled-back targets and slow build-out.
Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Claims linked: Background source; no baseline claim points here

The National (press) — Masdar City clips another $2.5bn from price tag, 1 December 2010 thenationalnews.com · 1 linked claim

Open original source ↗

Stable source ID: src-5dd5f18c6963b972
Publisher: Name not classified · thenationalnews.com
Type / language: web-page · language not classified
Published: 2010-12-01
Updated: Not recorded
Source last checked: No source-level check date
Record last verified: 2026-08-15
Dossier created: 2026-08-15
Retrieved copy: No local capture recorded
Archive: No archived copy linked
Content hash: No captured content hash
Locator: No locator recordedDescriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Claims linked: clm-4d607cf5936b11f4

The National (press) — completion pushed back, total cost falls, 10 October 2010 thenationalnews.com · background

Open original source ↗

Stable source ID: src-f28d04a94256186a
Publisher: Name not classified · thenationalnews.com
Type / language: web-page · language not classified
Published: 2010-10-10
Updated: Not recorded
Source last checked: No source-level check date
Record last verified: 2026-08-15
Dossier created: 2026-08-15
Retrieved copy: No local capture recorded
Archive: No archived copy linked
Content hash: No captured content hash
Locator: No locator recordedDescriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Claims linked: Background source; no baseline claim points here

Known limits of this passport

Publisher names and source languages have not yet been classified; domains are recorded without guessing.
Existing source notes are descriptive locators, not page- or paragraph-exact citations.
A missing archive, publication date or content hash is shown as null rather than inferred.
The project-level evidence grade ranks the strongest source in the entry; it is not a truth score for every claim.