Monday, August 9, 2010

Posted by smileyface on 1:23 AM
1

Land Reclamation in Dubai

We had a rather interesting Geography lesson last week, which talked about land reclamation in Dubai. Unlike Singapore, where land is reclaimed because... Singapore is tiny, Dubai's land reclamation projects are actually grand projects aimed at increasing Dubai's tourism income.


The contrast between the 2 countries is quite interesting. As can be seen from http://library.thinkquest.org/C006891/reclaimland.jpg, Singapore's land reclamation (the gray areas) has the sole purpose of expanding Singapore's land area. On the other hand, Dubai's Palm Islands http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/06/Palm_Island_Resort.jpg are unique and eye catching. Apart from being a feat of land reclamation, this also shows how Dubai has shifting its focus from oil to tourism.

Oil was first discovered in Dubai in 1966. The oil economy let to the rapid growth of Dubai's economy, but now Dubai's oil economy accounts for 5% of its income, as opposed to 50% in the 1980s. So how was this shift possible? After the Gulf War, rising oil prices encourage Dubai to shift its focus to tourism and real estate. Dubai built up many world-record breaking architectural marvels to attract tourists, such as the aforementioned Palm Islands, the Burj Khalifa (tallest man-made structure ever built), Emirates Towers and the Burj Al Arab, the fourth tallest and most expensive hotel in the world.

I found this story of Dubai's adapting to survive after its oil ran out fascinating.

1 comment:

  1. iffataliOctober 17, 2012 at 7:36 AM

    When I travel, I draw and paint sketches which is great fun. And as long as you are fully aware that it has nothing to do with actual art, I think that's all right.
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