Dubai is currently involved in ambitious plans to create a series of artificial islands off its Gulf shores. These islands, which will house luxury residences, villas and hotels have proven to be a huge attraction for footballers like David Beckham and the rest of the world’s jet set, but are a growing concern for environmentalists due to their potential impact on the local marine ecology.
The ambitious World project consists of300 artificial islands to be built offshore andindividually to investors
Bahrain is following suit with its al Dhurratoffshore island development, projectmanaged by UK-owned Atkins
Many environmentalists feel that Dubai should be concerned for the long-term viability of the offshore building plan, as rising sea levels from global climate change could spell trouble. The problem, if it is such, is growing. Other Gulf emirates and states including Abu Dhabi, Bahrain, and Saudi Arabia have taken a liking to offshore artificial island development. More than 70 per cent of villas in the Durrat Al Bahrain's second phase have been sold to Gulf investors. Out of 800 villas to be built, 650 have been sold and reclamation work for seven islands has been completed.
The World, situated a couple of miles off the coast of Dubai, just next door to the well-known Palm (a giant artificial island shaped like a stylised date palm), takes the concept one step further. It will offer some 300 new islands to the world’s rich and famous – islands only are for sale on The World, not mere villas or condos. Ranging in size from five to 20 acres, and with 50 to 100 meters of water separating each island, the total area encompasses just over 20 square miles. The development is located about two and a half miles off the coast of Dubai. Islands sell for $7 million to $35 million each, and buyers are expected to create their own infrastructures and sea transport, as The World will not be joined to the mainland.
Both developments are run by the state-owned, government-controlled Nakheel. The World’s island of Britain will set you back about US$32m, and has reportedly been sold. A private consortium has purchased the whole of Australasia, apparently with a view to turning it into a holiday resort. They have plans to alter its shape entirely, join it all up with bridges and build a 12-storey hotel on the south island of New Zealand, according to various regional press reports.
Environmental impact
Yet while there has been much media attention about the proliferation of artificial island projects in the Gulf, little of it has addressed the environmental impact of such massive undertakings, and the transformation of both the sea and landscape. Until recently, Nakheel has been able to focus predominantly on promoting, rather than defending the islands, but new evidence of environmental detriment is bringing the company and its projects under fire.
The Nakheel-developed Palms: Jumeirah
The huge 'stem' of the Jumeirah Palm
The Palm Deira will be the largest Palm
There are many local voices speaking out about the need to implement adequate coastal management, but developers and construction firms are keenly stepping up dredging and building operations. One Abu Dhabi-based environment expert has emphasised the need to develop and implement a comprehensive legislation concerning integrated coastal zone management (ICZM) that may consider, among other things, agreed principles of sustainable development and protection of sensitive and critical sites. Ashraf Al Cibahy of the Environment Agency in Abu Dhabi presented a paper entitled ‘National Legislation Relating to the Integrated Planning and Management of Marine and Coastal Zones of United Arab Emirates’ during the International Conference on Coastal Zone Management and Engineering in the Middle East (ArabianCoast 2005).
In the UAE, stated Al Cibahi, more than 10 federal laws and 20 emiri decrees have been issued since 1971 in relation to the subject of marine and environmental affairs in the country and its seven emirates. But none of this legislation provides a complete inclusive framework for the integrated planning and management of the coastal zones. Al Cibahi proposed an action plan to improve, consolidate and update these legislations in order to generate a comprehensive framework for the ICZM in the UAE.
In another paper on ‘Marine and Coastal Protected Areas: An ICZM tool to Support the Sustainable Use of the Marine Environment of the UAE’ Al Cibahi stated that the coastal zones of the Arabian Gulf are under various degrees of stress as a result of major demographic shifts to intense urbanisation, physical alterations, overexploitation of marine resources and marine pollution.
Yet with investment levels running high, it’s unlikely that developers will stop now. Some 64 per cent of the population of all the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries except Saudi Arabia live along the western coasts of the Gulf and the Arabian Sea,’ said Al Cibahi. Recent estimates indicate coastal investments in the region to be worth US$20 to 40 million per km of coastline (UNEP 1999). According to these estimates, the total value of investments along Abu Dhabi coastline is US$ 7,200 to 14,400 million,’ he noted. Al Cibahi called for the standardisiation and updating of protected areas’ management systems and the building of national capabilities to maintain biodiversity and protected areas.
From the air, The World and Palm projects already create a highly visible impression. And back down at sea level, significant changes in the marine environment are also making their marks. As a result of the dredging and redepositing of sand for the construction of the islands, the typically clear waters of the Gulf have become clouded with silt. Construction is reportedly 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 water, beaches are eroding with the disruption of natural currents.
Palm Island is advertised as ‘being visible from the Moon’. The huge structure, much of which is already built, consists of 17 huge fronds framed by a 12-kilometre protective barrier. When completed, the city-resort will sport 2,000 villas, 40 luxury hotels, shopping centres, cinemas and leisure facilities and is expected to support a population of approximately 500,000 people.
Plans for The Palm include an artificial diving park complete with four themed areas. One area, to be called Snorkler's Cove, will feature traditional marine life as well as an added incentive – a daily deposit of a single solid gold one-kilogram bar, worth more than $15,000 at current prices. Developers also intend to transfer and sink several wrecks for a more ‘dramatic’ diving experience. Project backers assert that such additions will actually help attract fish and other marine life by providing shelter and leading to reef expansion and community diversification.
ubai Waterfront is anotherNakheel coastal development
The yellow area to the left is DubaiWaterfront, adjacent to the Palm Jebel Ali
The buildings on the trunk of the Palm Jumeirah are clearly visible from land
The Palm Jebel Ali is a much larger development, located in a formerly protected marine reserve. The management of Jebel Ali marine reserve, the Persian Gulf's second most biodiverse marine system, was taken away from the Dubai Municipality Protected Areas Unit and passed over to Nakheel in order that the development be built. Many marine experts argue that the replacement of these natural formations with artificial structures cannot be a true substitute for what is being destroyed, or result in a net gain in marine biodiversity. Further, ecologists fear that the standardising of the marine environment will alienate native species and encourage the likely introduction of new, foreign and possibly destructive species.
The Palm Deira is the largest Palm development of the three currently underway, and is one of the biggest land reclamation projects in the world. Reclamation works on the project are expected to take almost a decade, and the Ham 316 suction dredger, the flagship of Dutch Van Oord’s island-building fleet and one of the biggest dredgers in the world, is currently hard at work creating the project’s foundations.
The bridge of Van Oord’s dredger is the size of a five-a-side football pitch, according to a reporter from Dubai-based Construction Week, who recently took a ride on board.
In just one trip, the vessel can suck around 23,000 sq metres of sand from the seabed – or the equivalent of around 500 lorry loads.
‘The sand is mixed in the hull with water and pumped through a nozzle at the front of the dredger — we call it ‘rainbowing’. The other method that is commonly used is bottom dumping. The vessel has doors underneath and, if it sits over a spot where there is enough depth, we open the hold and empty the sand directly on to the bottom of the seabed,’ the vessel’s caption told Construction Week.
Another method that could be used is pumping ashore. The Ham 316 is one of ten suction hopper dredgers and three specially equipped rock-dumping vessels that together will vacuum the seabed of Dubai’s waters over the next eight years. Building the project will involve one billion m3 of sand and 40 million tonnes of rock. Since the dredging work on the original Palm Jumeirah projects started four years ago, Van Oord has been forced to go progressively further into the Gulf to extract sand needed to build the artificial islands.
The dredger now travels between 20 and 30 nautical miles offshore to the ‘borrow’ area, before returning with a full load of sand to be deposited off Deira.
Troubled waters?
Environmentalists' concerns about the present state of Dubai's waters are not without warrant. Coral reefs and their associated mangrove and sea grass habitats function on varied levels, providing a number of integral services. Among these values are the provision of food and shelter for a wide range of marine species, the protection of coastal regions from storms, the prevention of coastal erosion and the support of commercial fishing and recreational activities, namely scuba diving and sport fishing.
Troubled waters are nothing new for Dubai or any other marine region. The health of the coral reefs has been in a state of continuous decline over the past 50 years. The Arabian Gulf is one of the most grievously affected areas, with recent estimates of habitat loss pegged at 35 percent. Increases in temperature and salinity have previously been attributed as the leading factors in reef habitat degradation, but the new pressure from dredging serves only to exacerbate the declining state of the environment.
Nakheel concedes that its various artificial archipelago projects have indeed buried reefs and changed the environment, but argues that the company will try to alleviate and even reverse some of the detrimental effects by building artificial reefs upon completion of the islands. What is more, the company has employed a marine biologist to monitor and rehabilitate damaged reefs. Imad Haffar, the research and development manager of Nakheel, predicts local fauna will flourish in the newly constructed environment, but ecologists fear otherwise.
Environmentalists and scuba divers alike report that so much silt has been stirred up from dredging that organisms and the reef itself are slowly being choked by the sediment particles. The current activity has essentially destroyed Dubai's diving industry even if temporarily, and enthusiasts have left the area for clearer waters. Once dredging and construction are complete, the waters should clear, but will anyone recognize what has been left behind?
What Nakheel environmental scientists say about the Palms:
News regarding the colonisation of our Palm projects by a diverse array of marine biota:
- Just recently we discovered that the channels between the fronds of the Palm projects seem to be ideal habitat for seagrass meadows. We've discovered large tracts of two species of seagrasses establishing in these areas. The protection offered by the crescent offers a sheltered environment favourable to seagrasses. The Palm Jumeirah crescent itself represents about 40 hectares of rocky reef. I dive on it every week and it is flourishing with invertebrate and vertebrate fauna. We've recorded dolphins, manta rays, sharks, trevally and more within the waters of Palm Jumeirah.
- There is a philosophical question as to whether habitat creation through rocky reefs, seagrass meadows and extensive intertidal beaches (70km on Palm Jumeirah) is sufficient mitigation for our island building activities. The previous habitat beneath the footprint of Palm Jumeirah was an open pelagic environs above denuded benthic sediments. Such habitat type is very important to numerous species, however, this habitat type is also very well represented in the Arabian Gulf. The richness of flora and fauna taking advantage of the habitat offered by our projects does indeed exceed the diversity previously found on the site. However, looking at the scale of our projects relative to the Gulf, this shift in the species composition is very minor and localized and most unlikely to have an adverse effect on the broader marine environment. In an ideal World, no one would interfere with any natural environment but at least our projects continue to provide healthy habitat unlike say agriculture, mining, most terrestrial residential developments or any project on a greenfield site for that matter.
The Dubai Coastal Zone Monitoring Programme
The coastal monitoring programme is run by the Coastal Management Section of the Dubai Municipality with the aim of broadening knowledge of the physical processes at work within the Dubai coastal zone. The programme incorporates the regular capture and analysis of: The monitoring programme was started in 1997 when a baseline bathymetric and topographic survey of the Jumeirah coastline was undertaken. Follow-up surveys were performed regularly over the following years and a directional wave recorder was installed to provide information on wave conditions near the coast. The programme was considerably expanded in 2002 to include the whole extent of the Dubai coast, from Al Mamzar Lagoon in the north to the Jebel Ali coast in the south. The Dubai Creek has also been included.
This site not only serves to provide information about the monitoring programme, it also gives access to recently recorded data through graphs and images. Captured data can also be obtained for use by coastal engineering consultants and other interested parties. Historical data is available from the Coastal Management Section.
