Palm Islands

Palm Islands (English for Palm Islands; Arab جزر النخيل ) are two artificial island groups ( " The Palm, Jebel Ali " and " The Palm, Jumeirah "), which since 2001 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, will be built.

So far, only "The Palm Jumeirah " built and driven, while in " The Palm, Jebel Ali " is complete only to land reclamation. The originally planned third island " The Palm, Deira " has been set during the land reclamation and transformed into a smaller group of islands (Deira Islands ).

Each of the two island groups was applied in the form of a palm tree. The " palm tree" is 5 and 4 km long in the projects " Jebel Ali " and " Jumeirah ". These projects are made possible by a topographic feature: Since the continental shelf in the Persian Gulf far into the open sea, the depth of water is relatively low. The islands consist of at least 100 million cubic meters of rock and through a special vibration method compacted beach sand. Alone, " The Palm, Jumeirah " extended the coastline of Dubai by about 100 km.

Both Palm Islands are owned by Nakheel, the state-owned development and construction company. The founder of the Kabul Bank, Sherkhan Farnud, invested about 160 million dollars in 35 luxury villas on the islands.

Palm Jumeirah

Location, shape and size of the islands

"The Palm Jumeirah " ⊙ 25.11944444444455.1325Koordinaten: 25 ° 7 ' 10 "N, 55 ° 7' 57" E, which started in 2001 as the first and almost perfect island is located between the Jebel Ali port and the center of Dubai. Palm Jumeirah is 560 acres in size and consists of three sections: the " master " ( " The Trunk " ), the " palm fronds " ( " The Fronds " ) and the surrounding " crescent moon " ( " The Crescent " ) to protect against storm surges. The 4 km long and 600 meters wide "trunk" and 16 " palm fronds " are interconnected and together form an island. The located in the southeast base of the palm is connected via a 300 m long bridge with the mainland.

At the northwestern end of the palm- shaped main island is connected to the almost 12 km long outer ring via a 800 m long undersea tunnel. On the outer ring is the almost 50 -acre resort and entertainment complex Atlantis, The Palm and other resorts. Visitors can, inter alia, in some cases traveling by driving since 2009 Dubai Monorail.

Technical and structural implementation

Overall, an estimated 200 million cubic meters of sand and stones were needed for the landfill. The earthworks perform the Dutch company Royal Boskalis Westminster and Van Oord. Special nutrients to stimulate the growth under water to attract rare fish to compensate for the ecological damage and to make diving more attractive.

Various problems become more complicated and delayed the completion of the palm -shaped island. Thus, the heaped sand with huge machines in vibration had to be moved so that it solidifies and later does not yield a nature abgeschauter process that would otherwise take decades. Also turned out that the water circulation within a closed breakwater ring with too little exchange did not work, thus forming unwanted algae and polluted the water. The problem could be solved by two new side-mounted and bridged gaps in the breakwater.

Development and marketing

On Palm Jumeirah few thousand villas and holiday homes were built on narrow fronds on which broader range resulted in several apartment buildings and about 30 larger hotels. The property on Palm Jumeirah differ thematically and architecturally; it is to acquire villas in several international styles.

The cost of the raw construction of the island are estimated at 1.5 billion U.S. dollars. The total cost including all transport and buildings can only be roughly estimated at about 10 billion U.S. dollars. In December 2006, the first apartments in the area of ​​"Tribal " were ready; in November 2008 celebrated it 's official opening ceremony of the island, which alone cost 20 million U.S. dollars.

Palm Jebel Ali

" The Palm, Jebel Ali " ⊙ 25.00083333333354.991388888889 is located about 5 km south-west of the port of Jebel Ali.

Construction of the Palm Jebel Ali was in October 2002, the pure land reclamation was completed in early 2008. On the island, the island and planned city of Dubai Waterfront adjacent According to current plans later in the West, so that Palm Jebel Ali will be the final integrated eastern Dubai Waterfronts.

Due to the financial difficulties of the construction company Nakheel, the work was stopped on the Palm Jebel Ali in 2009, even though all villas had been sold.

Other artificial islands in Dubai

• The World
• Dubai Waterfront ( temporarily suspended )
• Jumeirah Islands ( domestic)

Criticism, problems

Both environmentalists and investors criticize the lack of water circulation in the area of the islands. Problems arose after the establishment of the first Palm ( Palm Jumeirah ) on by the lack of water circulation between the heaped " palm fronds " and the changed water circulation along the now truncated coastline. Supported by the high temperatures in this region, there was growth of algae with turbid water. This attempt was then to fight with additional drainage, which, however, only partially succeeded. In addition, it interrupted the imaginary as a breakwater circle around the palm on both sides to improve by tidal water exchange.

Critics also expect traffic problems as the Palm Islands are fully settled; so will push for the only 560 hectares of the Palm Jumeirah in full utilization of all facilities 50,000 to 60,000 people. This would correspond to almost the stress of inner-city neighborhoods. The entry and exit is made via the trunk of the palm, which could also be due to the confluence with the Sheikh Zayed Road in the lead early and evening traffic to extensive congestion.

Further criticism relates to the lack of urbanity and the barely existing public space of the Palm Jumeirah. How many viewers will the serial development on the stem with always the same -looking apartment buildings as too monotonous and the only brief glimpses to the coast as inadequate. The towering building is too focused on the use of terrain, it lacked any visual stimulus. Also on each palm leaves the private use of land had been stretched to the utmost, and publicly accessible points on the usually separated with barriers roads are not provided.