Dubai's giant palm-shaped archipelago is one of the symbols of this region's utopia.
Dubai from a small coastal fishing village has been invested into a modern city. However, the UAE government is well aware of the unsustainable development of oil. Sultan Mohammed, the ruler of Dubai, has spent more than two decades turning this city into a world-class destination, where it can exist without "black gold" .(Photo: Conference.city).
However, Dubai's geography hinders this development project: the entire emirate has only 60km of coastline.Huge buildings and hotels along the water's edge form a giant wall.(Photo: Educate Plus).
The problem is how to make hundreds more kilometers of coastline.Dubai has solved this problem by building the world's three largest artificial islands.(Photos: Travel & leisure).
In 1993, Dubai began to build the first artificial island - home to Burj Al Arab, the famous 7-star hotel.This unique structure stands out among the surrounding buildings.The location is 280m away from the shore, making the shadow of the tower unaffected by nearby resorts.(Photo: Booking).
The success of Burj Al Arab begins a daring plan of Dubai: building giant islands.Sultan Mohammed came up with the idea of a palm tree to maximize coastal properties.The smallest palm branch is nearly 1.5 km long with houses on both sides.(Photo: Eikongraphia).
Nakheel takes responsibility for building palm islands.Palm Jumeirah Island has its first inhabitants since 2007. Palm Jebel Ali Island has been completed.The largest island, Palm Deira, is still in the process of encroaching on the sea.(Photo: Thousandwonders).
The construction of palm islands was carried out since 2001. Divers explore the seabed and workers build a crescent-shaped breakwater.The bottom of the breakwater is a layer of sand covered with a geotextile to prevent erosion.The stones weighing a ton are placed on the sand.(Photo: Archirodon).
At the top are two rock layers, each weighing 6 tons.The breakwater will protect the island from storms and severe weather.(Photo: My Travel Blog).
The palm islands themselves are built with sand sucked from the sea floor. Palm Jumeirah is built from 94 million m 3 of sea sand.(Photo: Hi-Shelter).
In order to shape properly, contractors used differential global positioning systems (DGPS).Sand is compressed into place and fixed by millions of tons of stone.(Photo: Guiderepublic).
Palm Jumeirah is now full of villas and hotels, connected to the mainland by a 6-lane undersea tunnel.The island has added 78km of coast to Dubai.(Photo: Skift).
Palm Jebel Ali started in 2002, but was delayed many times and is now considered 'long-term project'.When completed, Palm Jebel Ali will have twice the area of Palm Jumeirah.(Photo: RAU).
The Palm Deira project is 8 times the size of Palm Jumeirah published in 2004. However, the project later changed to the Deira archipelago of 4 small islands.At the end of 2018, Night Souk - the largest night market in the world - with more than 5,000 stalls, nearly 100 restaurants and cafes will come into operation.(Photo: Al Bawaba).
Nakheel has taken many measures to minimize the impact of artificial island construction on the environment, but these huge buildings still have significant consequences.The huge amount of sea sand that was sucked up to build the islands changed the waves, temperature and erosion characteristics in the Persian Gulf.At the same time, many coral reefs were destroyed.(Photo: Google Sites).
