Walid Abdul-Wahab
Desert Mirage: The worlds first man made islands
Walid Abdul-Wahab is a senior majoring in Business Administration with an emphasis in real
estate finance & construction management. Walid’s interest in the construction industry
developed during his 22 years residing in Saudi Arabia where he has witnessed deserts
transforming into a concrete metropolis built on the proceeds of enormous oil wealth that
showcases their national pride.
Mega projects are a common scenario almost everywhere in the world. As a result of
advancements in technology, engineers constructed skyscrapers and other infrastructure that left
the entire world in awe. Dubai spent trillions transforming the city into an engineering marvel.
The country built various structures in this city, including a revolving skyscraper and the world’s
tallest structure. However, none captures the attention more than the Palms Islands. The Palm
Islands are artificial Islands formed in the shapes of a date palm. The Islands add about 1,600
km to Dubai’s coastline and have already been termed as the eighth wonder of the world. The
three islands supply 100 luxury hotels and a large number of residential and entertainment
centers. This article presents an overview of one of the best engineering marvels, the Palm
Islands project. The article will first give a background of the project, including the construction
process, and then discuss the challenges faced by the engineering team. The impacts of this mega
project on the local environment and the coastal eco-system will also be discussed in detail.
Keywords: Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Islands, Dredging, Tourism and GPS
Multimedia: An animation in speed mode showing the time elapsed of how engineers put the
rocks individually resulting in the formation of a palms island.
Introduction
Finding your favorite marble is rare, especially if its somewhere beneath the millions of grains of
sand. Today, finding it in seconds has never been easier with the Global Positioning System
(GPS). Now picture the same scenario but with tons of rocks acting as your marbles and more
than 1,500 acres of sand. Would you be able to track each rock surrounded by all that sand? One
engineering team made this challenge into a mega project making it the 8th wonder of the world.
The UAE is one of the world’s largest and fastest growing economies. Dubai witnessed immense
investments in the construction industry hence becoming the largest construction market in the
GCC [2]. According to Noack [3], the country’s construction industry managed to record a
strong development between 2007 and 2009 despite the global financial distress. In 2009, the
industry contributed approximately 8% to the country’s GDP. These massive investments and
growth have facilitated the construction of mega structures such as The Palm Islands. The Palm
Islands are a series of three artificial Islands, The Palm Jumerah, Palm Jebel Ali and Palm Deira.
An island is defined as an area of land that is smaller in size than a continent and is fully
surrounded by water. An island is made up of piles of lava rising above sea level. Technically,
the Palm islands are manmade peninsulas made of sand dredged from the Persian Gulf [4].
Among the three islands, the Palm Deira is the largest artificial island in the world. Palm
Jumeriah was the first island to be constructed. Its construction commenced in June 2001. Also
situated on an artificial island in Dubai is the Burj al Arab. This is a luxury hotel standing 280
Engineering The Palms
meters from Jumeriah beach. It is the world’s fourth tallest hotel and has a private curved bridge
connecting it to the main land [5].
Reasons for construction of the Palm Islands
The Palm Island is unquestionably the most ambitious and enterprising ventures to have ever
been imagined and constructed, without the invention of GPS this project would never had
happened. An increase in the tourism sector urged the construction of the islands. Thus
accomplishing a tourist destination that stands out from the rest, brimming with world class
hotels, upscale amenities and hundreds of miles of beaches all in one unique place [2]. Complete
land reclamation and achieving pioneer status as well as fame were the other objectives of the
construction project. The reclamation would then allow for construction of hotels and housing
facilities. This would involve many foreign investors and hence improve Dubai’s international
recognition [3].
Construction Process
Construction of The Palms began in mid 2001 by a process called dredging [5]. Dredging is a
process of collecting sand from one location (intertidal zone) and deposited onto the existing
beach. The sand came from the Persian Gulf, which was dredged and then sprayed onto the
required area using DGPS (Digital Global Positioning Systems) guided dredging ships.
Construction of the islands is estimated to be around 110,000,000 cubic meters of sand. The
workers then used blasted mountain rock to construct a crescent-shaped breakwater that is 11
kilometers long. This formed the Crescent of Palm Jumeriah that stands 13 feet above the low
tide sea level. The island sits 34 feet at the water’s deepest point and is made up of over 7 million
tons of rock. Divers placed these rocks individually using cranes, signed them off and gave them
a DGPS coordinate. The designers and contractors used DGPS to get the complex shape just
right and ensure that the sand placement was within 0.39 of an inch [6].
Figure 1 below shows layered rocks
pouring in the Palm Islands.
The lowest layer of the breakwater is
composed of sand. A water permeable
geo-textile covers the sand to prevent
erosion. At least a ton of rocks covers
the sand, with two layers of large
rocks capping the structure. Each side
of the breakwater has two 328-foot
Figure 1: Dredging layered rocks onto deposited sand; Source: National Geographic
openings in order to eliminate stagnation in the deep channels. The gaps allowed the complete
circulation of water. As of early 2006, the project had about 8000 workers. 1000 workers lived
in an onsite camp while about 7000 lived on a converted passenger ferry [5, 6]
Curving the land
Can you imagine a world without GPS? Back in the days before GPS, maps ruled the world.
GPS has become so omnipresent in our lives that we can no longer live without it. The
construction process of the Palm Islands was without a doubt an engineering marvel that
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Engineering The Palms
dependent on GPS. The constructors had to exhibit pinpoint accuracy in order to emphasize
precision of curvature. A private satellite placed 676 km in the sky commanded the dredgers to
pour the sand assuring the Islands took a palm tree shape. The satellite would give GPS
coordinates of the point where it was necessary to pour the sand, using mobile receivers as grid
reference [7]. They completed constructing the breakwater in August 2003 [5].
Engineering Challenges
Several challenges hampered the complex process of constructing the Palm Islands. Making the
islands strong and stable was one challenge whereas uniformly shaping them as a palm was the
other. [8]. Construction of the palm tree islands required about 94 million cubic meters of sand.
Dubai has desert sand, which is unsuitable for construction due to its fine particles that can be
easily washed away. They found the most suitable sand 11 km away from the sea [9]. The sand’s
nature of being loose and non-compatible after the dredgers sprayed it also presented another
challenge. To solve this problem, they used vibro-compacting machines to compact the sand.
This process took 8 months [7]. Another major challenge that the engineers experienced was
beach erosion. In normal situations, sea current pushes beach sand evenly. By constructing huge
structures on the shoreline, its shape is likely to be changed by the current. Beach erosion led to
the extension of some areas and erosion of others. To solve this problem, constructors sucked the
deposited sand and built structures on the shoreline before pouring the sand back in its rightful
position to make it resistant to beach erosion [7].
In October 2003, engineers discovered another
challenge that could have put the entire
construction project at risk. Engineers noted
that the system was not flushed properly by the
tides and presented a danger of the water
becoming stagnant. Figure 2 illustrates this
problem, which resulted from lack of
circulation of water inside the breakwater and
led to storage of dirty water inside the sea
wall. Luckily, a solution to this challenge was
found just in time because a delay would have
polluted the water affecting all forms of
marine life.
Figure 2: The red area represents stagnant water, a problem
Caused by lack of water circulation. Source: Engpedia
Figure 3: Fresh water can be seen to circulate after
Construction of the break openings. Source: Engpedia
This would be a problem because Dubai’s fishing
industry is its main natural attraction since the city
initially evolved from a small fishing settlement.
Figure 3 illustrates how engineers cut the island’s
outer ring at two places. Engineers ensured the water
that entered into the system was flushed, making it
easy for the clean water to be pushed inside [8].
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Engineering The Palms
Environmental Impact
Introducing a change of this magnitude to an established ecosystem had devastating effects on
the surrounding ecosystem instantaneously. The construction company took various measures to
reduce the environmental effects by transporting fish and other marine life outside the
breakwaters without any success [9]. The construction has resulted in changes in the area’s
wildlife, coastal erosion and sediment transport. The process of sand dredging and depositing
resulted in death and asphyxiation of marine life [10]. This process also resulted in an increase in
suspension of fine sediments in the waters off the coast. This suspension hinders penetration of
sunlight to the sea floor hence endangering marine life. As the marine species die off, they
decompose and the organic materials lead to increased levels of hydrogen sulfide in the water
hence making it toxic. The dredging process has also damaged the marine habitat by burying
oyster beds, coral reefs, and also subterranean fields of sea grass. This has threatened marine
species dependent on this habitat for food [11]. To restore those displaced marine organisms,
marine biologists constructed artificial coral reefs in order to create new habitat. The first reef
was the “Runde Reef” which successfully attracted a variety of marine life. [7] Other designs
have been tested or in progress and many more are planned in the future to repair the damages
and losses including the removal of harmful chemicals.
Project Result
With the initial goal being to increase Dubai’s coastline and tourism sector, the Palm Islands are
an ambitious undertaking that has garnered international attention with its uniqueness. Through
development of the Islands, the country has become a world leader in business innovation.
Through this project, Dubai managed to reclaim land and increase its land area as well as its
coastal perimeter. The Islands form a spectacular view and can even be seen from space. The
spectacular beauty has been a substantial incentive in the country’s tourism sector [12]. The
commercial houses on the islands attracted buyers from all over the world and they sold out a
few days after completion. The housing developments also attracted investments from various
members of the UK national team. This further proves how successful this project was as well as
how much the project was acceptable to both the local and the international communities [2, 3,
and 4]. Despite the various negative effects on the environment, the project resulted in a
spectacular piece of engineering genius that helped Dubai attain pioneer status. It also sparked
interest from the foreign world in the tourism and foreign development industry.
Conclusion
Engineering is taking rapid strides forward and at blurring pace such that something considered a
marvelous novelty today turns into a common object tomorrow. Engineering also presents
methods of coming up with spectacular creations from nothing in particular as was the case with
The Palm islands. The construction process of such creations also presents new challenges to
engineers, where they have to act quickly and find solutions to this crisis [11]. The Palm Islands
are a modern engineering wonder that has improved Dubai’s international image. Dubai yet
again has successfully created another man-made island called “The world” can you guess what
shape it is?
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Engineering The Palms
References
[1] V. Gorgenlander, Strategic Analysis of the Construction Industry in the United Arab
Emirates. Hamburg: Diplomica Verlag, 2011.
[2] J. Krane, City of gold: Dubai and the dream of capitalism. New York: St Martin’s Press,
2009.
[3] S. Noack, Doing business in Dubai and the United Arab Emirates. Munich: GRIN
Publishing, 2007.
[4] G. Roza, The creation of islands. New York: The Rosen Publishing Group, 2009.
[5] National Geographic Television, National Geographic: Mega structures. Washington
DC: National Geographic, 2006.
[6] Bonier Corporation, Popular Science: Palm and the world islands. Florida: Bonier
Corporation, 2004.
[7] T. Choomchaiyo, The impact of the Palm Islands, United Arab Emirates. [Online].
Available: https://sites.google.com/site/palmislandsimpact/generalinformation/construction-of-the-islands
[8] Engineering Challenges. (2011, Sept.). Palm Islands: Engineering challenges. [Online].
Available: http://engineeringchallenges.blogspot.com/2011/09/palm-island.html
[9] S. D. Brunn, Engineering Earth: The impacts of engineering projects. New York:
Springer Publishing, 2011.
[10] P. A. Krenkel, Dredging and its environmental effects. Alabama: American Society of
Civil Engineers, 1976, pp. 23-48.
[11] J. W. Kamphuis, Introduction to coastal engineering management. Singapore: World
Scientific Publishing, 2010.
[12] M. Sheller, Tourism mobility: Places to play, places in play. London: Routledge, 2004.
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