Palm Jumeirah - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The Palm Jumeirah is an artificial

Artificial island

An artificial island or man-made island is an island or archipelago that has been constructed by people rather than formed by natural means...

archipelago

Archipelago

An archipelago , sometimes called an island group, is a chain or cluster of islands. The word archipelago is derived from the Greek ἄρχι- – arkhi- and πέλαγος – pélagos through the Italian arcipelago...

created using land reclamation

Land reclamation

Land reclamation, usually known as reclamation, is the process to create new land from sea or riverbeds. The land reclaimed is known as reclamation ground or landfill.- Habitation :...

by Nakheel, a company owned by the Dubai

Dubai

Dubai is a city and emirate in the United Arab Emirates . The emirate is located south of the Persian Gulf on the Arabian Peninsula and has the largest population with the second-largest land territory by area of all the emirates, after Abu Dhabi...

government in United Arab Emirates

United Arab Emirates

The United Arab Emirates, abbreviated as the UAE, or shortened to "the Emirates", is a state situated in the southeast of the Arabian Peninsula in Western Asia on the Persian Gulf, bordering Oman, and Saudi Arabia, and sharing sea borders with Iraq, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, and Iran.The UAE is a...

. It is one of three islands called the Palm Islands

Palm Islands

The Palm Islands are an artificial archipelago in Dubai, United Arab Emirates on which major commercial and residential infrastructures will be constructed...

which extend into the Persian Gulf

Persian Gulf

The Persian Gulf, in Southwest Asia, is an extension of the Indian Ocean located between Iran and the Arabian Peninsula.The Persian Gulf was the focus of the 1980–1988 Iran-Iraq War, in which each side attacked the other's oil tankers...

, increasing Dubai’s shoreline by a total of 520 kilometres (323.1 mi). The Palm Jumeirah is the smallest and the original of three Palm Islands (Palm Jumeirah, Palm Jebel Ali

Palm Jebel Ali

The Palm Jebel Ali are artificial archipelago, and began construction in October 2002 and were expected to be completed in mid 2008 though as of 2011 construction is on hold. The Palm Jebel Ali is expected to accommodate 1.7 million people by 2020. Once it has been completed, it will be encircled...

and Palm Deira

Palm Deira

The Palm Deira is an artificial archipelago, part of the Palm Islands, Dubai. It was announced for development in October 2004. The first announced design was 8 times larger than the Palm Jumeirah, and 5 times larger than the Palm Jebel Ali, and was intended to house one million people. Originally,...

) under development by Nakheel. It is located on the Jumeirah

Jumeirah

Jumeirah literally means "beautiful." It is a coastal residential area in Dubai, United Arab Emirates mainly comprising low rise private dwellings. It is administratively divided into three neighborhoods titled "Jumeirah 1," Jumeirah 2" and "Jumeirah 3." It has both expensive and large detached...

coastal area of the emirate of Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates

United Arab Emirates

(UAE).

Description

The Palm Jumeirah is in the shape of a palm tree. It consists of a trunk

Trunk (botany)

In botany, trunk refers to the main wooden axis of a tree that supports the branches and is supported by and directly attached to the roots. The trunk is covered by the bark, which is an important diagnostic feature in tree identification, and which often differs markedly from the bottom of the...

, a crown with 16 frond

Frond

The term frond refers to a large, divided leaf. In both common usage and botanical nomenclature, the leaves of ferns are referred to as fronds and some botanists restrict the term to this group...

s, and a surrounding crescent island that forms an 11 kilometres (6.8 mi) long breakwater

Breakwater (structure)

Breakwaters are structures constructed on coasts as part of coastal defence or to protect an anchorage from the effects of weather and longshore drift.-Purposes of breakwaters:...

. The island

Island

An island or isle is any piece of sub-continental land that is surrounded by water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, cays or keys. An island in a river or lake may be called an eyot , or holm...

is 5 by and its total area is larger than 800 football pitch

Association football pitch

An association football pitch is the playing surface for the game of association football made of turf. Its dimensions and markings are defined by Law 1 of the Laws of the Game, "The Field of Play".All line markings on the pitch form part of the area which they define...

es. The crown is connected to the mainland by a 300 metres (984.3 ft) bridge and the crescent is connected to the top of the palm by a subsea tunnel. Over the next few years, as the tourism phases develop, The Palm Jumeirah is touted as soon to be one of the world’s premier resorts. The Palm Island is the self-declared 'Eighth Wonder of the World'. The island doubled the length of the Dubai coastline.

According to the developer's publicity material, the Jumeirah Palm island will feature themed hotels, three types of villas (Signature Villas, Garden Homes and Canal Cove Town Homes), apartment buildings, beaches, marinas, restaurants, and a variety of retail outlets. including:

Hotels proposed, under construction, or completed include:

The Trump International Hotel & Tower
Trump International Hotel and Tower (Dubai)
Trump International Hotel & Tower was a proposed skyscraper hotel at the trunk of the Palm Jumeirah in Dubai. It was a joint venture between the Trump Organization and Dubai-based Nakheel, a government-owned company, and was announced on October 5, 2005. The hotel was expected to be a 300-room hotel...

Officially cancelled in February 2011.
Atlantis, The Palm
Atlantis, The Palm
Atlantis, the Palm is a hotel resort at Palm Jumeirah in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. It is a joint venture between Kerzner International Limited and Istithmar PSJC and was opened on 24 September 2008. The resort is modelled after the Atlantis, Paradise Island resort in Nassau, Bahamas...

Opened in September 2008.
One & Only Resort, Opened in November 2010.
The Taj Exotica Hotel & Resort
The Taj Exotica Hotel & Resort
Taj Exotica Resort & Spa and The Grandeur Residences are being built on the crescent of the Palm Jumeirah, in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. The hotel is the part of the chain hotels of Taj Group of Hotels....
Palm Grandeur
Palm Grandeur
Palm Grandeur is a 5-star Resort, Spa and The Grandeur Residences, is a AED 1.2 billion development project being built on the crescent of the Palm Jumeirah in Dubai, United Arab Emirates....
Ottoman Palace Hotel and resort
Ottoman Palace Hotel and resort
Ottoman Palace Hotel and Resort is a hotel and resort under construction on a crescent of Palm Jumeirah, Dubai, United Arab Emirates. It is the first Ottoman Empire-themed hotel in Dubai. When completed it will contain 410 rooms and 38 suites...

. Expected to open in 2010.
Essque Palm Jumeirah - Part of the Tiara Residence project. The Residence has been handed over. The hotel will open in 2010.
Oceana Resort & Spa
The Fairmont Palm Residence
The Fairmont Palm Hotel & Resort
The Fairmont Palm Hotel & Resort
The Fairmont Palm Hotel and Resortis a luxury 5-star hotel of the Fairmont Hotels and Resorts chain, under construction on a crescent of Palm Jumeirah, Dubai, United Arab Emirates, .Upon completion in 2010, the hotel will comprise 381 rooms and suites, restaurants, cafes, spa, banquet, meeting...

, Fairmont Hotels and Resorts
Fairmont Hotels and Resorts
Fairmont Hotels & Resorts is a Canadian-based operator of luxury hotels and resorts. Currently, Fairmont operates properties in 18 countries including Canada, the United States, Mexico, Bermuda, Barbados, United Kingdom, Monaco, Germany, Switzerland, Egypt, Kenya, Tanzania, South Africa, the...
Royal Amwaj Resort and Spa
The Dubai Estates Hotel & Park
Hotel Missoni Dubai
Radisson SAS Hotel Dubai, The Palm Jumeirah
The Emerald Palace Kempinski, Dubai (Delivery Scheduled Mid 2011)
Kempinski Residences Palm Jumeirah
Kempinski Residences Palm Jumeirah
The Kempinski Residences, Palm Jumeirah are the first residences to open on the crescent of Palm Jumeirah in Dubai. The project was originally due to open in 2009, however has been delayed due to the economic down turn...

Dubai (Handing Over From 01/01/10)

Two F-100 Super Sabre

F-100 Super Sabre

The North American F-100 Super Sabre was a supersonic jet fighter aircraft that served with the United States Air Force from 1954 to 1971 and with the Air National Guard until 1979. The first of the Century Series collection of USAF jet fighters, it was the first USAF fighter capable of...

fighter jets have been stripped and sunk near The Palm Jumeirah to create an artificial reef

Artificial reef

An artificial reef is a human-made underwater structure, typically built to promote marine life in areas with a generally featureless bottom, control erosion, block ship passage, or improve surfing....

, intended as an additional attraction for divers.

On 18 June 2007, the Cunard Line

Cunard Line

Cunard Line is a British-American owned shipping company based at Carnival House in Southampton, England and operated by Carnival UK. It has been a leading operator of passenger ships on the North Atlantic for over a century...

announced that it had sold its former flagship, RMS Queen Elizabeth 2

RMS Queen Elizabeth 2

Queen Elizabeth 2, often referred to simply as the QE2, is an ocean liner that was operated by Cunard from 1969 to 2008. Following her retirement from cruising, she is now owned by Istithmar...

, to Istithmar for use as a floating hotel at The Palm Jumeirah beginning in 2009. However, as at July 2009, it appears as if the ship will rather relocate to Cape Town

Cape Town

Cape Town is the second-most populous city in South Africa, and the provincial capital and primate city of the Western Cape. As the seat of the National Parliament, it is also the legislative capital of the country. It forms part of the City of Cape Town metropolitan municipality...

for use in an unrelated Nakheel development.

Transportation

The 5.4 kilometres (3.4 mi) Palm Jumeirah Monorail

Palm Jumeirah Monorail

The Palm Jumeirah Monorail is a monorail line on the Palm Jumeirah island in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. The monorail connects the Palm Jumeirah to the mainland, with a planned further extension to the Red Line of the Dubai Metro. The line opened on April 30, 2009...

, connecting the Atlantis Hotel to the Gateway Towers at the foot of the island, opened on May 6, 2009.

Construction

Construction began with the Palm Jumeirah island in June 2001 and the developers announced handover of the first residential units in 2006. The island has been created using 94000000 cubic metres (3,319,578,624 cu ft) of sand

Sand

Sand is a naturally occurring granular material composed of finely divided rock and mineral particles.The composition of sand is highly variable, depending on the local rock sources and conditions, but the most common constituent of sand in inland continental settings and non-tropical coastal...

and 7 million ton

Ton

The ton is a unit of measure. It has a long history and has acquired a number of meanings and uses over the years. It is used principally as a unit of weight, and as a unit of volume. It can also be used as a measure of energy, for truck classification, or as a colloquial term.It is derived from...

s of rock

Rock (geology)

In geology, rock or stone is a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals and/or mineraloids.The Earth's outer solid layer, the lithosphere, is made of rock. In general rocks are of three types, namely, igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic...

. The Palm Jumeirah was created by pouring sand fill onto the 10.5 metre-deep seabed using dredgers. Above sea level, 3 metres of the reclamation were achieved by a dredging technique known as "rainbowing

Rainbowing

Rainbowing is the process in which a dredging ship propels sand that has been claimed from the ocean floor in a high arc to a particular location. This is used for multiple purposes, ranging from building up a beach to prevent erosion to constructing new islands...

", in which the sand fill was sprayed over the surface of the rising island. Calcareous

Calcareous

Calcareous is an adjective meaning mostly or partly composed of calcium carbonate, in other words, containing lime or being chalky. The term is used in a wide variety of scientific disciplines.-In zoology:...

sand was used for the reclamation. The island includes a curved breakwater using natural rock, intended to encourage the creation of a natural reef

Reef

In nautical terminology, a reef is a rock, sandbar, or other feature lying beneath the surface of the water ....

and provide habitat

Habitat

* Habitat , a place where a species lives and grows*Human habitat, a place where humans live, work or play** Space habitat, a space station intended as a permanent settlement...

s for sea life. The land form was reclaimed by the Dutch company Van Oord

Van Oord

Van Oord is a Dutch contracting company that specializes in dredging and land reclamation. Van Oord has undertaken many projects throughout the world, including land reclamation, dredging and beach nourishment.-History:...

. Total cost reached US$12.3 billion and maintaining the island is a costly expenditure. Approximately 40,000 workers, mostly from South Asia, have been involved in the construction of the island.

In early October 2007, the Palm Jumeirah had already become the world's largest artificial island. Also at this time, 75% of the properties were ready to hand over, with 500 families already residing on the island. By the end of 2009, 28 hotels were opened on the Crescent.

Controversy

The complexities of the construction have been blamed, in part, for the extended delays to the completion of the project, the date of which has been pushed back multiple times and is now nearly two years late. Further controversy was engendered when it was revealed that after launching the project, Nakheel increased the number of residential units on the island (with a concomitant reduction in the amount of physical space between individual properties) from the originally-announced 4500 (comprising 2000 villas and 2500 apartments) to an estimated 8000 without recompense to those investors who had purchased early in the expectation of greater separation between properties. This increase was attributed to Nakheel miscalculating the actual cost of construction and requiring the raising of additional capital, although Nakheel has never commented publicly on the matter.

The outer break water has been designed as a continuous barrier, but it was realized that by preventing natural tidal movement, the seawater within the Palm was becoming stagnant

Water stagnation

Water stagnation occurs when water stops flowing. Stagnant water can be a major environmental hazard.-Dangers:Malaria and dengue are among the main dangers of stagnant water, which can become a breeding ground for the mosquitoes that transmit these diseases.Stagnant or Stailment water can be...

. The problem was corrected by adding an additional gap in the barrier. As explained in the National Geographic Channel

National Geographic Channel

National Geographic Channel, also commercially abbreviated and trademarked as Nat Geo, is a subscription television channel that airs non-fiction television programs produced by the National Geographic Society. Like History and the Discovery Channel, the channel features documentaries with factual...

's documentary Impossible Islands, part of its MegaStructures

MegaStructures

MegaStructures is a documentary television series appearing on the National Geographic Channel and Five in the United Kingdom, on France 5 in France and on 7mate in Australia....

series, the breakwater was subsequently modified to create gaps on either side, allowing tidal movement to oxygenate the water within and prevent it stagnating, albeit less efficiently than would be the case if the breakwater did not exist. This same episode addressed the issue of marine life as well, but stated that the breakwater has actually encouraged marine life and that new marine species are moving into the area.

In a 2009 article describing the collapsing Dubai economy, The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...

reported that the Palm was sinking and this has been confirmed now by geological surveys, at the moment it is 5 millimetre (0.196850393700787 in) per year but this could increase rapidly. Furthermore there are many reported cases where people had bought houses before they were built and are furious about the space available now and the way they seem to be living on top of each other. Nakheel refuted the claims by the New York Times who had quoted one small ground survey firm that the island was sinking. They defended the single claim by saying that there had been no reports of any structural problems on any of the buildings on the island which would be expected if there were any subsidence. Nakheel also outlined that claims suggesting Palm Jumeirah has sunk by 5mm, as detected by remote sensing (satellite) techniques, are not possible given that NASA’s laser altimeter satellites have an accuracy of only + or – 50 millimetres (2 in).

External links

The Palm Jumeirah official website

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.

Description

Transportation

Construction

Controversy

See also

External links