Dubai: The Vulnerability of Success - Research Proposal Example

 Dubai: The Vulnerability of Success Introduction: A sustainable city is also called an eco-city and is referenced to those cities that are planned in consideration with the environmental impact, inhabited by the people who dedicate their efforts to minimize the required uses of energy inputted and the waste outputted. A sustainable city was recognized to build the city in order to assure a better future. The inputs of energy are water and food and the output is heat, air pollution and water pollution. After the term first gained recognition in 1987, it became quite a topic on which many theorists and ecologists wrote many books. Industrial ecology is a field that is used to plan and develop these cities1. Due to the many views about a sustainable city, there was never a proper definition found or that was completely agreed by all. In general, the sustainable city should have plans that meet the needs of the present and at the same times take care of the needs of the future generations to ensure that they can fulfill their needs. For a city to become sustainable, it has to prevent pollution, meet the needs of the people without relying on outside sources, utilizing renewable sources of energy, efficient use of land, recycling the waste material and minimal contribution towards the climate change. The urban areas and cities can contribute greatly in creating the social network between people who tend to live closer and who strive for prosperity. Thus these urban areas can save their energy and conserve resources much more efficiently than the rural areas. Hence, cities benefit from the locating of the human capital to one place from where the ideas and economy is strengthened and developed2. Sustainable Development is the use of the resources to meet the needs of the present humans in relation to preservation of the environment in order to ensure that not only do the present humans benefit from these resources but in fact the future generations do too. This term meant the development of the present without overlooking the future needs. Sustainable development is a joint effort made on utilizing the natural resources as well as applying the human capital. Sustainable development can be categorized into further types of sustainability: ecological, economical, political and cultural sustainability. The definition comprises of two concepts that can be covered under sustainable development. These are the concept of need, and the concept of limiting the utilization to fulfill these needs. What Dubai is good at? When we start talking about Dubai in terms of the development of the city, all we can think of is the colored archeology that we can witness. The coral islands and the shallow green water surrounding them, along with the large islands with huge resorts, amusement parks and plenty of mansions built over the water. With the topology of the desert, Dubai manages to fulfill many of the desires of the people regarding the desert safari who travel from various parts of the world. The islands and the lands are filled with infrastructural facilities like shopping malls that attract many of the tourists. The infrastructure includes the buildings, malls, apartments, resorts, hotels etc. The crime rate in Dubai is the minimum since the security laws are strict for every person. The strong market of Dubai ensures that the luxury goods are available for all the buyers. Where, in many years Dubai had minimum competition in their luxury market, now China is able to come up to their level where all the luxury goods are now available at a large market. During the past half century, Dubai has evolved into showing the best of many3. The city has been successful in achieving the feats of how the nature can be bested by humanity. They have coaxed islands from the sea, mountains of snow from the midst of the heat, the world’s tallest tower seen through miles away. Although the city lacks its own Disneyland and Universal Studios, it manages to attract and appeal people from around the world4. The problem with Dubai: The city of Dubai has been developed in such a way that it has become a strange shadow on the path of a sustainable future. Environmentalists and economists have seriously assessed the condition of the Dubai city and have claimed it as being the least sustainable country in the world. This is mainly because of the reliance on desalinated water, air conditioning and air travel for functioning. Some of the other things that are high on the unsustainable development in the city are the vast air conditioned malls, indoor ski slopes, golf courses and many more. Many of the coral reefs have been destructed in order to create artificial island for the tourists and the wealthy foreigners. But none of the environmentalists can speak out because of the control of the elites who are running these schemes. Dubai needs to reform the development practices that it follows before the unsustainable future overpowers the present. All over the world the economists and architects are striving hard in order to create sustainable buildings but in Dubai the problem becomes worst day by day. The city is creating more and more unsustainable developments that can ever be seen in living memory. They have already, and it hasn’t been much time, and they have already started depending heavily upon the revenues from the international tourists. The irony of Dubai is beyond question. It is an oil state and still they have drained all their resources to rely towards the foreign investment and capital instead. The aim of the planners should be to be sustainable rather than big and luxurious. Dubai has the immense tendency to carry out environmental degradation in which they do not use the environmental resources efficiently. Environmental sustainability is when the natural resources are ensured to be used in a way where they do not get used up at a high rate leaving none for the future generations. It is the interaction of the human needs and the environment to make sure that the environment remains as rich as naturally possible for the longest time. The using up of the natural environment means to limit the life support system for the future. Dubai is an example of the environmental instability. Dubai has a natural topography comprising of water, deserts and plain land5. After the sudden changes in the weather, there is no shortage of reasons that would suggest that Dubai should not have turned into a city from a desert. But the problem lies within the government stance to all these developments. Not much of these developments have been funded by the government, in fact, not any. The natural eco-system and the capitalism have one thing in common and that is the concept of demand and supply. This refers to the equalization of the population and production in a city. Dubai, during the massive production days tended to ignore all such concepts and the vacancy rate on the commercial space. When we look at the buildings, we see the Burj Khalifa which is the world’s tallest building and is known for the immense luxury present there. It is 2,625 feet tall and is boasted in the middle of the desert. It comprises of 160 floors with a combination of residents, commercial offices and an observation deck. The building is a fine example of the efforts and capabilities of the engineers since getting glass and steel in the middle of the air is not easy. It has been an immensely impressive achievement, but it was unnecessary. Many of the problems are indicated through the construction of this building for example the battle against the inexhaustible force of nature. And maybe for this reason, Dubai has a number of tangled financial issues6. In order to develop the city, they have used up all the natural resources. Water comprises of 71% of the earth’s surface. It is an important natural resource for a city that has about 2 million people in the desert. In Dubai, one of the world’s most exotic projects has taken place and that is the Palm Jumeira. Palm Jumeira is an artificial island which is shaped in the shape of a palm. This required the dredging of the ocean floor so that the sand was lifted up. This caused immense damage to the ecosystem of the marine life in the form of waste, pollution and other harms caused. While there are no problems in the weather predictions for any hurricanes in the future, but the creation of islands by breaking the natural movement of the water in the middle of the ocean may cause future problems of maintenance and structures and thus is unsustainable7. The social sustainability also counts in the sustainable development of a city. In Dubai, the society is full of diversions and international workers. All the human capital that they use is of the foreigners. The international human resources enter the city and they work to send back the money to their home countries. Dubai does not have the system of the residency permit or work permit for the workers who work there for years. This means that their human capital is also not permanent. All the workers know that they will work here and eventually go back to their countries because they cannot live here permanently. Eventually, the finance operated and functioned in the city goes back to the foreigner’s land. This means that sustainability does not exist as they do not plan about the future human capital, in fact they just think about the present needs and they fulfill them. Because of the lack of residency and the leniency on the human capital being invited to the city to work, they do not develop the cultural sustainability. It is merely an artificial city that works with the human capital brought in by the outsiders. It depends on the foreigners for their development and growth. If, at any time, the foreign aid will be restricted in Dubai, the city will be doomed. With the international ideas and technologies brought in, the city lacks its own cultural significance and tends to be a simply international city. Thus, the city does not have any cultural stability as well for the future generations to preserve8. Redesigning Dubai: Dubai has a long way to travel in order to achieve a sustainable developed city. As we mentioned earlier, the environmental problems seem to be the most in Dubai due to the immense construction and consumption of natural resources. In fact, it has been said that Dubai has already consumed most of the natural resources and have left none for the future thus being highly unsustainable. To take more steps towards a greener Dubai, the architects assigned should make sure to work for the present but with regard of the future needs of the generations. The buildings should be limited and not built against the exhausting of the nature9. Economists in Dubai should focus more on the use of solar energy as there are several malls, uses of air conditioners everywhere and up to date use of technology. Solar energy would help in saving the non renewable resources that could then be preserved for the future needs. Dubai should focus more on renewable resources and furthermore the local energy authorities should build up strategies with the help of which the greenhouse gases emission would reduce. The increased recycling would also help to meet the needs of the present and save some resources for the future generation. Dubai also needs to focus on their financial debt under which they have been since the past few years. Getting out of the debt is difficult but with the operations of the projects efficiently, the government can manage the finances. Dubai has long relied on the human capital coming from the outside forces. This needs to be changed. The city needs to rely on their workforce so that their finances are generated within their city and not elsewhere. With the help of the human capital coming within the city, the government can be able to organize their natural resources, finances and environmental sustainability. It is important that the plans and development growth take place at the hands of the government bodies and not at the hands of the international ecologists. In this way Dubai will also be able to create their cultural importance too. Giving some authorities and work to the locals would increase the spread of their cultural and the creation of some cultural places or monuments. Dubai is an international city which has lost its origins somewhere beneath the luxurious malls and artificial islands. This needs to come back as it would contribute in gaining sustainability10. Other advices for the city could be the proper procedure of managing the waste products. The lesser consumption of light and water at luxurious buildings and residential areas would preserve the resources; space for the land should be left for the greenery which is highly lacking. An example of a sustainable city in United Arab Emirates is Masdar City. It is a newly developed project under the government of Abu Dhabi for a planned city. It highly relies on the solar power and many other renewable resources. Many huge plants are planned to be built to conserve the solar energy. Future of Dubai: After the easy part, comes the difficult part which is the implementation. Once the general schemes are implemented by the government, Dubai will be able to preserve its natural resources which become really important for the future development. A sustainable city will be able to save its natural resources for the future needs otherwise the city will become short term and will see no future. If there is no future seen, there will be less investment, less capital and in the meantime, the city will break down. To ensure the security and the growth of its people and the government, it is important for a city to become sustainable. Dubai, being a sustainable city, will firstly provide security to the locals who tend to be feeling unprotected because of the lack of natural resources and future predictability. Dubai can achieve its economical strength, environmental strength and social strength by becoming sustainable. After this, the international investors will provide more and more capital to the city to ensure more production. But if this doesn’t happen, then the investors will take away their money from these markets. Right now, all the investments that are made are short term and the economy is tangled. Gaining sustainability will also decrease the debt of the foreigners and Dubai will gain a lose economy dependent upon their own resources. References Andrea Peevers. Dubai 6. NY: Lonely Planet, 2010 ChristopheR Davidson. Dubai: The Vulnerability of Success. NY: Columbia University Press, 2009. Explorer Publishing. Dubai: The Complete Resident’s Guide. Explorer Publishing & Distribution, 2006. Filipe Santos. Humans on Earth: From Origins to Possible Futures. NY: Springer, 2011 Mimi Kirk. Industrialization in the Gulf: A Socioeconomic Revolution. NY: Taylor & Francis, 2010 Oxford Business Group. The Report: Dubai 2008. USA: Oxford Business Group, 2008 Rabah Arezki. Beyond the Curse: Policies to Harness the Power of Natural Resources. DC: International Monetary Fund, 2011 Salma Jayyusi and, Renata Holod, Petruccioli, Attilio. The city in the Islamic World. Netherlands: BRILL, 2008. Read More