PALM ISLANDS
Basic Idea About Palm Islands
The
Palm Islands are two artificial islands in Dubai, United Arab Emirates in the
shape of palm trees. The Belgian and Dutch dredging and marine contractors Jan
De Nul and Van Oord, were hired to complete construction. The islands are the
Palm Jumeirah and the Palm Jebel Ali.
Each
settlement will be in the shape of a palm tree, topped with a crescent. The
settlements will have a large number of residential, leisure and entertainment
centres and will add 520 kilometres of non-public beaches to the city of Dubai.
The
creation of the Palm Jumeirah began in June 2001. Shortly after, the Palm Jebel
Ali was announced and reclamation work began. A third island was planned and
construction started, but this project was later remodelled and renamed to
Deira Island.
Construction
The Palm Islands are artificial islands constructed from sand dredged from the bottom of the Persian Gulf by the Belgian company, Jan De Nul and the Dutch company, Van Oord. The sand is sprayed from the dredging ships, which are guided by a Global Positioning System, on to the required area. The process is known as rainbowing because of the rainbow-like arcs produced in the air when the sand is sprayed. The outer edge of each palm's encircling crescent is a large rock breakwater. The breakwater of the Palm Jumeirah has over seven million tons of rock. Each rock was placed individually by a crane, signed off by a diver and given a Global Positioning System coordinate.[citation needed] The Jan De Nul Group started working on the Palm Jebel Ali in 2001 and had finished by the end of 2006. The reclamation project for the Palm Jebel Ali includes the creation of a four-kilometer-long peninsula, protected by a 200-meter-wide, seventeen-kilometer long circular breakwater. There are 210,000,000 cubic meters of rock, sand and limestone that were reclaimed (partly originating from the Jebel Ali entrance channel dredging work). There are approximately 10,000,000 cubic meters of rocks in the Slope Protection Works.
Environmental concerns
The
construction of the Palm Islands and The World, for all Nakheel's attempts to
do otherwise, have had a clear and significant impact on the surrounding
environment. It would be impossible to introduce a change of such magnitude to
an established ecosystem and not anticipate any negative changes or reactions
in the area's wildlife and natural processes.[citation needed]The construction
of the various islands off the coast of Dubai has resulted in changes in area
wildlife, coastal erosion and alongshore sediment transport, and wave patterns.
Sediment stirred up by construction has suffocated and injured local marine
fauna and reduced the amount of sunlight filtered down to seashore vegetation.
Variations in alongshore sediment transport have resulted in changes in erosion
patterns along the UAE coast, which has also been exacerbated by altered wave
patterns as the waters of the Gulf attempt to move around the new obstruction
of the islands.
Dubai's
megaprojects have become a favorite cause of environmentalists. Greenpeace has
criticized the Palm Islands' complete and utter lack of sustainability, and
Mongabay.com, a site dedicated to rain forest conservation, has attacked Dubai's
artificial islands aggressively, stating that:
significant
changes in the maritime environment [of Dubai] are leaving a visual scar As a result of the dredging and redepositing of sand for the construction of
the islands, the typically crystalline waters of the gulf of Dubai have become
severely clouded with silt. Construction activity is damaging the marine
habitat, burying coral reefs, oyster beds and subterranean fields of sea grass,
threatening local marine species as well as other species dependent on them for
food. Oyster beds have been covered in as much as two inches of sediment, while
above the water, beaches are eroding with the disruption of natural currents.
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Structural Importance
The Palm Island is made out of only sand and rocks (no use of concrete was used to build the island). This was done according to the order of the Prince of Dubai to make it very natural. The Project idea was conceived by the Prince himself and he was the one who came up with the design for the island. The primary objective of construction of the Palm Islands was to increase tourism in Dubai. This importance to tourism was given as the oil reserves in the gulf were getting depleted and hence the Prince of Dubai decided to make tourism a major revenue source for the country. The Palm island consisted of resorts, hotels and was a major holiday destination
