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The Palm Jumeirah

 Ekta Chaudhary 

Dubai has some of the richest collections of modern buildings and

structures of various architectural styles. Often dubbed one of the most

perfect places on the planet, Dubai is popular because of its numerous

beaches and many resorts with sunny days throughout the year.

The idea for the construction of Palm Islands struck when it was

estimated that about ve million tourists visited Dubai which the heikh

wanted to triple to fteen million. !ut the problem lay in the coastline of

Dubai at "ust #$ km, not enough for %& million tourists that Dubai was

supposed to be attracting.

Dubai found a very lucrative solution to its problem. It was decided to

build a massive Palm Tree shaped island by the year $''(. The island

was supposed to be &.& km in diameter, thus increasing the coastline by

&( km. The e)traordinary plan was to build a city in that island which

would have shopping malls, restaurants, hotels, apartments and homes.

*ow, world+s best engineers were needed for the pro"ect. earch for

e)perienced professionals was started to prove rst of all that it was

possible to build a mega structure island, out at the sea. any obstacleswere overcome day by day. They started with the calculation of the

strength of storms in the sea and the rise in water level due to global

warming. trong tides which destroy nearly everything in their path were

among the greatest threat to this pro"ect.

The research team worked out that -rabian ulf is only %(' km wide and

only /' meters deep, hence too short and too shallow for catastrophic

waves to build up. The solution to the problem of keeping this fragile

island safe was to construct a breakwater having a height up to / meters

and which was %%.& km long. In -ugust $''%, the construction of the

breakwater started.

 !y *ovember $''%, nine barges, fteen dumpers, four dredgers, thirty

heavy land based machines and ten cranes beside other construction

machinery, were put to work.

0nlike other previously man1made islands that are built from metal and

concrete, Dubai+s Palm Islands are made from all natural materials2 rocks

and sand because the Prince wanted give it a natural appearance that

would blend in its surroundings. *ow, the biggest problem that needed to

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be resolved was how an island made out of sand would remain in

position.

olutions to this problem were very comple) because it is dependent on

many factors such as the strength of Dubai+s storms, the height of waves

and tidal surges, and global warming+s impact in raising sea levels. One

of the biggest fears was how waves could accumulate over long distances

 via persistent winds and large currents potentially causing severe

destruction to the islands.

3uckily, scientists say that the -rabian ulf is the perfect place for such

construction because with a depth of /' m and a width of %(' m, it is too

short and shallow for the creation of immensely destructive waves.

cientists designed the crescent breakwater structure to surround the

front of the Palm Islands to protect them from high waves and storms.

The crest of the breakwater is /14 m above mean sea level. The seaward

slope is one in two. The composition of the breakwater consists of coarse

sand, 5uarry run, and &1( tonnes of sand.

In early October $''#, the Palm 6umeirah had already become the

world+s largest articial island.