Land Reclamation
(Jordyn, Nathan, Joel, Stephin, Bowen)
Dubai - Palm Islands (Bowen)
Dubai’s prime minister, Sheikh Mohammed, has spent the last two decades working to turn his city into a world class tourist mecca. In 2001, there was nothing off the coast of Dubai but warm, shallow gulf water. Then Nakheel, a local real estate conglomerate, saw 3 billion cubic feet of sand from the seafloor and used GPS precision to shape it into a 17-fronded palm tree. Seven million tons of mountain rock were piled around the island to form a crescent-shaped breakwater seven miles long, designed to protect the newborn island from waves and storms. The first Palm Island stretched years longer than they wanted it to, but today its trunk is a broad expanse of malls and luxury hotels. The 17 fronds are lined with McMansions packed closer together than buyers were led to believe, due to rising costs on the project. A six-lane undersea tunnel connects the island to the beaches on the crescent, while the Middle East's first monorail runs the length of the island. Environmentalists have criticized many Dubai megaprojects, but none more so than the Palm Islands. The massive dredging required to build the island has drastically changed the wave, temperature, and erosion patterns in the Persian Gulf.
The Problem with Jakarta's Land Reclamation - (Joel, Nathan)
The current governor of Jakarta is Basuki Tjahaya Purnama, and over the past few years, has repeatedly argued that the land reclamation project is needed to help Jakarta solve its land problems. Jakarta is facing threats from subsidence and rising sea levels, which combined, he says, will be far worse than Jakarta’s annual flood problem. As the project builds at least 17 artificial islands with a projected total area as big as Bogor, it will significantly alter and degrade the already fragile environment of coastal Jakarta. The presence of artificial islands will change sea currents, which can lead to the erosion of nearby natural islands or even more flooding of the city. The current purpose of this Project is unclear, but it seems as if the current governor of Jakarta, Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, plans to put low-cost rental apartments and golf courses and other luxury buildings. Who would benefit from this project? The developers, of course. The artificial islands are set to host luxurious real estate and golf courses, accessible only for those of higher income as the properties are being sold for Rp 30 million per square meter which amounts to over 2000 dollars in CAD! So what is the problem with the Jakarta's Land you may ask? The problem is in the chance that the land reclamation does not help Jakarta’s current problem and that it will even lead to other environmental problems and that the land will mainly be used by more rich citizens instead of benefiting the public at large.
China - Fiery Cross Reef (Stephin)
Over the past couple years, Chinese dredgers have transformed spare reefs and rocks in the disputed partly archipelago into islands large enough to boast sports fields and airplane runways. For example, The Fiery Cross Reef was once just a couple of rocks jutting out at high tide, now today, has grown into a 665-acre island with dozens of structures and a 3 km runway that can accommodate military jets, A harbor big enough for military tankers to berth is under construction and more. Within the past nine months, Chinese building crews have outfitted the former watery shoal with a running track, basketball courts, and tennis courts. Fiery Cross Reef is a rock located in the Spratly Islands. China first took possession of the island in 1988 now the Island is now worth 14.5 billion. In 2014, the PRC government began land reclamation activities to construct a large artificial island to support an approximately 3,300 meters airstrip, a seaport, and a military base. The Fiery Cross Reef is now 36 years old, the Fiery Cross Reef is on the southern side of the South China Sea in Spratly Islands. In Scotland, the Fiery Cross Reef was used for the declaration of war.
Netherlands – Schokland (Jordyn)
The Dutch and their ancestors have been working to hold back and reclaim land from the North Sea for over 2000 years. Schokland is included in the agricultural landscape that was created because of the reclamation of the former Zuider Zee, part of the never-ceasing struggle of the people of the Netherlands against the water. Schokland was a peninsula that, by the fifteenth century, had become occupied and then abandoned as the sea invaded; it had to be evacuated in 1859. Following the impoldering of the Zuider Zee, however, it has formed part of the land reclaimed from the sea since the 1940s. Schokland was an elongated strip of peat land that ceased to be an island when the Noordoostpolder was reclaimed from the sea in 1942. It has been part of the land reclaimed from the sea since the 1940s. For the next few centuries, the Dutch worked to slowly push back the water of the Zuiderzee, building dikes and creating polders (the term used to describe any piece of land reclaimed from water). Once dikes were built, canals and pumps were used to drain the land and keep it dry. Some benefits of the reclaimed land were: one, improved agricultural output, resulting in more food and raw materials for industries. Two, land reclamation has resulted in improved fresh water supply for industrial, domestic, and irrigation purposes. Three: The construction of walls and dikes around the polders has helped control floods.