April 19, 2024

A New World Built of Sand: Some of the Largest Land Reclamation Projects on Earth

Palm Jumeirah and Palm Jebel Ali photographed from the International Space Station. Rather than having simply two palm islands, the original plans called for a third (Palm Deira) that would have been even bigger. Ambitions were also scaled back substantially for Palm Deira, which is now called the Deira Islands. Palm Jebel Ali stays mostly undeveloped.
One worldwide group of researchers noted in a February 2022 paper that there have been significant modifications in water quality around Palm Jumeirah.

Rather than having simply two palm islands, the initial strategies called for a third (Palm Deira) that would have been even bigger. There were also plans for another extensive archipelago called The Universe that would consist of islands created to look like parts of our solar system and the Milky Way.
Ambitions were likewise scaled back considerably for Palm Deira, which is now called the Deira Islands. Palm Jebel Ali stays mostly undeveloped.
Though built, just a handful of the 300 islands worldwide have actually seen development. Among the exceptions is a new resort on Clarence Island, in the South America portion of the archipelago. Another task spread out across six islands in the European portion is also close to opening.
As designers work to fund and finish projects, researchers are using satellites to keep an eye on a variety of environmental impacts and changes associated with the new landscape. For example, one global group of researchers kept in mind in a February 2022 paper that there have been substantial changes in water quality around Palm Jumeirah. They reported steady increases in suspended sediment and chlorophyll since 2001, in addition to a 7.5 degree Celsius (13.5 degree Fahrenheit) increase in average water temperatures. They did see some temporary improvement in water quality in 2020, when tourist to the island plummeted due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Their findings are based on information collected by Landsat 7 and Landsat 8.
Astronaut picture ISS067-E-3785 was obtained on April 6, 2022, with a Nikon D4 digital video camera utilizing an 380 millimeter lens and is offered by the ISS Crew Earth Observations Facility and the Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit, Johnson Space Center. The image was taken by a member of the Expedition 67 crew. The image has actually been cropped and boosted to enhance contrast, and lens artifacts have actually been eliminated. The International Space Station Program supports the laboratory as part of the ISS National Lab to assist astronauts take photos of Earth that will be of the greatest value to scientists and the public, and to make those images freely available on the Internet.

Palm Jumeirah and Palm Jebel Ali photographed from the International Space Station. April 6, 2022. Click the image for broader, high-resolution view.
Dubais coast has some of the largest and most identifiable land reclamation jobs in the world.
There are no other coastlines on Earth rather like the one along Dubai. Just twenty years earlier, there was very little of note along the citys coast, aside from the shallow waters of the Persian Gulf. Today that shoreline is the site of a few of the biggest and most identifiable land recovery jobs worldwide.
A pair of palm-shaped islands enclosed by circular storm barriers (Palm Jumeirah and Palm Jebel Ali) and an island chain created to appear like a map of Earths continents stick out in this photograph, which was taken by an astronaut on the International Space Station on April 6, 2022. To construct these uncommon coastal landforms, employees dredged sand and silt from the seafloor, sprayed it into the preferred shape with gps and ships innovation, and used a piece of building equipment called a vibroflot to blend in stone and strengthen the new islands.