The Manufactured Landscape of Palm Jumeirah - Coursework Example

PALM JUMERIAH The Manufactured Landscape Contents PALM JUMERIAH Contents Introduction to Palm Jumeirah 2 What is Palm Jumeirah 2 Why it was built 3 1. Source of Income 3 2. Coastline Extension 4 3. Tourist Attraction 4 4. Creation of Natural Reef 4 Background on design 5 Background on location choice 5 Transformation of landscape 5 Significance of the Project 7 Positive effect on the Landscape 7 Environmental effects improvement in aquatic and bird population 7 Social effect 7 Economic effect 8 Negative effects on the landscape 8 Environment effect 8 Social effect 9 Economic effect 9 Conclusion 9 Bibliography 10 Introduction to Palm Jumeirah What is Palm Jumeirah Many famous islands are known for natural beauty but there are certain islands which were developed for tourism or protection from floods. Palm Jumeirah is the world largest man-made palm tree shaped island which comprises of a long trunk of two kilometer, a crown which is made up of 17 large divided leaves and a crescent surrounding it. It is an artificially created archipelago whch has been created from sea. It is located in United Arab Emirates, owned by government of Dubai and was launched in 2001. Palm Jumeirah was designed and constructed by HHCP architects. Basically it is one of the three planned islands under the project named as "The Palm Trilogy"; the other two projects are Palm Jebel Ali and Palm Deira. But Palm Jumeirah is the first and smallest of the three projects of "The Palm Trilogy" (Gibling 2013). Thus, Dubai Palm islands are considered as "Wonder of Engineering" (Zulfiqar 2014) because nothing of such has been built in history of modern Engineering. Though palm tree shaped "Palm Jumeirah" was launched in 2001 but the residence of island started by the end of 2006. This residence included 4000 luxury villas and apartments. Since 2006, well- renowned residential and tourism destination have been developed on the Palm Jumeirah. And in 2009, the Palm Jumeriah Monorail was launched for the public. This monorail was the first in Middle East which connects the trunk of Palm Jumeirah and the Atlantis Aqua venture Station on the crescent (The Palm, United Arab Emirates 2014). Palm Jumeriah will be the future home for 5-star beachfront hotels which will have capacity of 25,000 guests, approximately 60,000 residents. Apart from the hotels, it includes theme parks, resorts, restaurants and other such recreational activities for the tourists. It is expected that Palm Jumeriah will be the future home of many Hollywood, Bollywood actors and many football players as well (Sochacka, and Batko 2014). Why it was built According to feasibility study done in United Arab Emirates, the major source income that is its oil supply is expected to finish. Therefore Prince decided to make Dubai the top most tourist attraction (Singh 2013). But Palm Jumeirah was built for various other purpose but following were the few reasons. 1. Source of Income Dubai is considered richest places in the world, and its major source of income is its oil industry. Statistics had revealed that by end of 2016, oil reserves of Dubai will be finished; therefore Prince Sheikh Muhammad devised a plan of self-sustaining project which will be a new source of income for the country (Gibling 2013). And the main idea was to make Dubai the top tourist destination. Moreover, increase in coastline means more space for beaches thus resulting in more space for hotels and restaurants. And Palm Jumeriah has resulted in increase in coastline which in turn has led to development of many 5-star hotels, apartments, resorts and villas. Thus attracting the tourist and increasing the cash inflow in the country (The Palm, United Arab Emirates 2014). 2. Coastline Extension The main reason was coastline extension of Dubai, thus making Dubai the top tourist destination in the world. Coastline extension will increase the construction area and beach front thus attracting more tourists. Initially coastline of Dubai was 50km long which was not sufficient enough to build projects on beach. But after Palm Island was constructed, it added 120km of beaches to the city (The Palm, United Arab Emirates 2014). 3. Tourist Attraction In order to attract tourist, all three Palm Islands like Palm Jumeirah will have luxury hotels, residential villas on beach-side apartments, shopping malls, theme parks and other recreational activities for the tourist. Thus, this has fulfilled the dream of the Prince that was to make Dubai the top ranked tourist place in the world. Apart from the recreational activities in the Palm Jumeriah, the surrounding premises have also started construction of recreational activities like knowledge city, theme parks etc. (The Palm, United Arab Emirates 2014) 4. Creation of Natural Reef Before the Jumeirah Palm was constructed there was no sign of life. Therefore, rocks were used in construction rather than concrete slabs thus to encourage natural reef creation. Since the construction has been completed, a new diversity of fishes has been spotted in the area and even pod of dolphin have been seen regularly near the Jumeirah Island. Because natural reef have been born in the area, which is attracting the fishes thus giving a natural habitat for the fishes (Gibling 2013). Background on design In 1990s, ruler of Dubai Prince Sheikh Muhammad and Prime Minister had put forward their idea of man-made island in United Arab Emirates. For the said purpose, they involved Nakheel as their partner for the current project (Gibling 2013). Palm Jumeirah is a palm shaped island, and the main essence of project is the design of island. The design of Palm is a symbol of Dubais heritage. Basically palm represents bride of orchid in Dubai. The palm design has the excellent geometry that was perfect to create the longest stretch for beach (Choomchaiyo 2009). Additionally, 100m two openings on either side was constructed that will allow the sea to be refreshed after every 14 days which will improve the quality of water. The island consists of two main areas; the palm and the breakwater. The breakwater forms an arc in a circular pattern that functions as a barrier to the sea and it protects the palm from wave action and water flow. While the palm constitutes of trunk and 17 leaf shaped area which includes hotels, apartments, villas, restaurants and recreational activities (Choomchaiyo 2009) Background on location choice Before Palm Jumeirahs construction, extensive preliminary research and surveys were done. Firstly, expert divers surveyed if excavation process feasible and safe for the location selected. In addition to this, Palm Jumeirah was visible from space as well (Gibling 2013). Transformation of landscape The idea of palm shaped island was put forward by a company called Nakheel. Palm Jumeirah construction process initiated in August 2001 which started off with preliminary researches and survey. The first consultant that was approached for the Palm Jumeriah mega-project was Hill International. Hill International already knew the coastline of Dubai because it was involved in re-development of some projects near the coastline. Later, reclamation experts from Dutch were hired as consultants for the projects as they have experienced land reclamation in Netherlands (Choomchaiyo 2009). The construction process was divided in two major segments, breakwater and the Palm. The break water was made up of three layers; initial layer was of made up of sand, second layer was of rock and third layer was made up off stones. Though United Arab Emirates has unlimited sand supply because of deserts; but this sand could not be used for the Island construction because of its composition. Therefore, sand was dredged from sea floor and used for the construction of Palm Jumeriah. The sand was dredged by Jan De Nul, Belgian company and Van Oord, Dutch company. And for the construction of second layer, rocks were taken from local quarries, and placed using heavy equipment. For accurate placement of material, global positioning systems (GPS) are used (Choomchaiyo 2009). The workforce involved during the time of construction included 40,000 employees who were working day and night to complete the project. The raw material that was used in the construction included 94 million cubic meter of sand and 7 million tons of rock (Choomchaiyo 2009). After partial construction of breakwater, construction of The Palm could be started. And thus, construction of the two regions, breakwater and the Palm can be done simultaneously. The Palm region of the Island constituted of sand; it was the same sand that was used in the construction of breakwater region. The process of "rainbowing” was used for sand deposition: basically the process involved spraying the sand into air with dredgers in shape of arc. This process helped reached the area where ships could not move. The Jan De Nul group, the Belgian group completed the construction by 2006 (Gibling 2013). Significance of the Project Positive effect on the Landscape The main impact of landscape was increasing the coastline which was initially 50km long but after island construction the 120km of coastline was added, thus increasing the surface area for construction. The design of the Palm Jumeirah has ensured blocking winds and strong waves. The two way 100m tunnel has resulted in refreshing the water after every 14 days, thus having the good water quality (The Palm, United Arab Emirates). Environmental effects improvement in aquatic and bird population The crescent shaped structure of breakwater encouraged coral reef formation. Thus, this area served as habitat for various species of fish, algae, starfish etc. This breakwater structures has provided new home for marine life. Therefore, various fishes have been sighted which were initially not sighted in the area like pod of dolphins (Sochacka, and Batko 2014). Social effect Palm Jumeriah had a positive social impact, as it created employment opportunity for many. Jobs were not only given during the construction phase of Palm Jumeirah, but also after the construction were completed. As many resorts, hotels, recreational activities have been built, thus opening many jobs opportunities for the unemployed. Consequently, employed city will decrease the crime rates thus making the city more peaceful (Sochacka, and Batko 2014). Economic effect Palm Jumeriah has encouraged development of urban economy, development on large scale. The innovative design of the Island has attracted tourist from around the world. For the said purpose, the city has started construction of real estate companies which will be incorporating policies related to mega projects thus involving financial flows from global investors and government (Sochacka, and Batko 2014). Negative effects on the landscape Although extensive research and surveys have been done before using the sand for the foundation but it has been reported in the geographical survey of 2009 that the island is sinking slowly. Though the sand was dredged down from the floor of Persian Gulf and have undergone through extensive processing but still the sand is settling down thus will be disturbing the infrastructure of Palm Jumeriah (Gibling 2013). In addition to this, another concern with landscape was that there was no land before where the Palm Jumeriah was built, so environment naturally would want to go back to its original form thus resulting in erosion of land. Therefore filters and nets have been installed in the various parts of Island thus to minimize the erosion of sand (The Palm, United Arab Emirates 2014). Environment effect Palm Jumeirah construction led to elimination of coral reef and oyster bed, thus destroying the natural habitat. Many fishes migrated from the construction site. Moreover, nesting sight of turtles was also destroyed. In addition to the negative impact on marine life, it has also resulted in erosion of shoreline and pollution concerns in the Palm Jumeirah. The underlying reasons of shoreline erosion are increase in height of waves and changes in wave direction; which has led changes in movement of sediments. The design of Palm Jumeriah has increased the residency time of water which means that water is stagnant for long and is not flushed away frequently thus resulting in water pollution (Jason 2011). Social effect Due to increase in employment opportunities, many people are migrated to Dubai for availing these opportunity. And increasing number of immigrants from different cultures are affecting the Dubais culture. For instance, few years back more than 80% people spoke Arabic but now most of the people are using English as their communication language. Thus difference in culture is causing disharmany among different groups thus segregating the society (Sochacka, and Batko 2014). Economic effect In 2001, when the Palm Jumeriah was on its initial stage of researches for the Island, the 9/11 event disturbed the economy of Dubai because there were very few tourist in the year thus disturbing the economy of Dubai. The rising cost of the hotels, resort is affecting the tourist flow, and many people who were residing in Palm Jumeriah residence are moving out of there because increased cost of living. Moreover, the rumors regarding sinking of Jumeriah Island because of unstable stand has resulted in economy disturbance (The Palm, United Arab Emirates 2014). Conclusion Palm Jumeriah is the world’s smallest man- made island which is considered as Eight Wonder by many sheikhs of Dubai. Though, it is an excellent piece of art in history of modern engineering but some of the issues which have been seen after its construction are affecting the tourist flow. Therefore, Nakheel and the other consultants linked with Palm Jumeriah construction should work out ways to minimize the negative impacts especially the environmental concerns. Apart from the loopholes in the project, Palm Jumeriah still is tourists’ attraction sight in Dubai. Bibliography 1. Choomchaiyo, Tida . "Construction of the Islands." 5 December 2009. The Impact of the Palm Islands, United Arab Emirates. website. 5 December 2014. 2. Gibling, Colin. "Construction Process and Post-Construction Impacts of the Palm." Journal of Undergraduate Engineering Research and Scholarship (2013). 3. Jason. "Dubai Man-Made Island Palm Jumeirah Beach." 17 February 2011. freaking kid. website. 4 December 2014. 4. Singh, Jasmeet. Palm Islands Dubai. 30 November 2013. Presentation. 5. Sochacka,, Karolina and Darek Batko. Jumeirah Palm Island, Dubai. Warsaw: Academia.edu, 2014. report. 6. "The Palm, United Arab Emirates." n.d. Designbuild-network. website. 5 December 2014. 7. Zulfiqar , Asif. "Dubai Palm Islands – National Geographic Documentary [Megastructures]." n.d. Flashy Dubai. website. 5 December 2014. Read More