In an ever-changing world with rapid boost of urbanization and population, many cities are urged to become sustainable and smart cities (SSC), and Oman is not an exception. The country is aiming to convert the Omani cities into sustainable and smart cities as part of its vision for 2040. Oman vision 2040 roadmaps the country future for the coming 20 years and it focuses, through several objectives, on sustainable development of all the sectors e.g., social, environmental, and economy. In order to insure a smooth and successful transit towards SSC, a full understanding for the elements that lead to the successful implementation shall be presented. This should include not only aspects of environmental and economical sustainability but also social sustainability which include several elements and pre-requisites. Among these elements and one of the most important factors is citizens' participation. Many authors and practitioners interwoven the presence of effective citizens' participation with the successful implementation of a sustainable and smart city from social sustainability perspective. Citizens' participation refers to the involvement of the citizens along with the government in the process of decision making especially when it comes to the design and the management of a city. Within the smart city context, Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is employed for fostered and more effective participation practice in urban planning that is known as Digital Participatory Planning (DPP). In Oman, and despite the tendency of the Omani government to achieve SSC, citizens' participation in urban planning is seldom and limited and current endeavors are still in the early stages. To avoid failing the implantation of SSC, a proper DPP needs to be considered henceforth. In response to this need, this research suggests a mechanism to integrate DPP in the current planning process in Oman. Prior to that, it establishes an assessment framework for the level of readiness and acceptance among the local stakeholders –including the government and the society- for the concept of DPP as a prerequisite for any on-ground DPP implementation. For doing so, a combination of qualitative and quantitate research methods were adopted including literature review, pile sorting, semi-structured interviews, questionnaires, process mapping, and participation experiment using a 3D interactive digital platform namely "Modelo". Starting with a comprehensive literature review that was conducted mainly to elicit list of factors and indicators that have direct impact on the readiness level of the planning stakeholders including the governments, and the local society. This was followed by pile sorting session with local experts to customize the suggested framework in a way that ensures it relevancy to the Omani context. After that, two questionnaires were designed, one for the local citizens and the other for the concerned planning authorities in Oman. Then the data obtained from both questionnaires were analyzed statistically using SPSS to assess the level of readiness for both the government as well as the society for the concept of DPP. The analysis included descriptive and inferential statistical tests. Simultaneously, key documents analysis followed by series of interviews with the concerned officials of the planning authorities were carried out to map out the current planning process that has been practiced in Oman, based on which a DPP interventions were suggested. Lastly, an experimental case study was performed wherein engagement of local citizens was conducted using a digital platform on an ongoing planning project in the Ministry of Housing and Urban Planning (MoHUP), which helped to identify how feasible of the suggested DPP process in Oman. The obtained results showed that the suggested framework by the literature had to be customized first to fit the Omani context, prior to its utilization in the preparation of the two questionnaires. The outcome of the two questionnaires revealed that there is an inventible well among the local citizens to take part in the urban planning issues, however, more efforts are required to enhance first, the trust between citizens and the policy makers and second, the internet services through which an effective participation can occur. Whereas on the government side, the results indicated that Omani planning authorities have an adequate infrastructure that can enable DPP, yet experienced administration team is needed. Furthermore, the planners showed a positive attitude towards DPP, however trust on citizens' comments and opinion shall be strengthened. On the other hand, the results of the key document analysis and the interviews showed that there are four levels of urban planning in Oman that includes national, regional, structural, and detailed levels. Both the national and regional were finalized and approved recently and the structural level is under-development. Therefore, the suggested interventions of DPP are best to be considered for the detailed level during the time of its development. Henceforth, the process followed in the detailed level of urban planning were broken-down into steps to identify level, time, and method of DPP suggested from each step. The last part of this study focuses on checking the feasibility of applying DPP process in Oman. To do so, a DPP experiment was conducting by using actual project from MoHUP and inviting local citizen to participate through a digital participation tool. The results obtained from the experiment showed that the digital process has met all the criteria that were set from the literature to be available or considered for successful digital participation process. To sum up, this thesis mapped, for the first time, the current planning process in Oman and introduced a framework to intergrade Digital Public Participation within this process as a contribution to the move towards sustainable smart cities that are encouraged by Oman Vision 2040. This framework is a result of four interrelated studies that form the body of this thesis. These studies developed local criteria to assess Oman readiness for DPP, assessed the readiness of both the government and the citizens for DPP, mapped the current planning processes in Oman at four levels, and tested the feasibility of applying DPP in a real project with real citizens. In the near further, we hope that the findings of this study will be adopted by the local authorities and the proposed framework will be tested in a larger scale by the MoHUP.