The World:

Dubai’s Archipelago

Overview

• The need of World Archipelago• The man behind The World• Construction timeline• Material Sources• Quantities and Costs• Machinery used• Construction process• Stabilization of surface• Effects on marine life and ecology• Transporation

Basic Facts about the Archipelago

• It has a total of 300 islands named accordingly with the location similarity of the actual world map.

• Located in the waters of the Persian Gulf and is at a distance of 4 kMs (2.5 Miles) from Dubai’s coast.

• Developed by government owned NakheelProperties.

• It is the most audacious project in the world.

Why ‘The World’?

• Dubai is one of the leading oil producers in the world, but the oil reserves are estimated to last only for about year 2016.

• The leader of Dubai wanted his country to be different from other Arab countries and for this he wanted to convert it into a luxurious country filled with a variety of options for tourism so that they could depend on the revenue generated from the tourism after they run dry of oil.

Man behind The World

• The project was originally conceived by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum(also known as Sheikh Mohammed), the ruler of Dubai at the time of commencement of project and currently the Prime Minister of United Arab Emirates.

Construction timeline

• May 2003: The World development was announced by Nakheel, total completion scheduled for 2008. It was initially to have 200 islands and an area of 5,600,000 square metres(60,000,000 sq ft).

• February 2004: It was announced that The World would comprise 260 islands, and its area would be 6 km by 9 km.

• April 2005: Sand dredging 55 percent complete, 88 islands had been completed.

• December 2006: The World reclamation 90 percent complete.

• January 2008: The World breakwater was completed.

Sources of sand and rocks

• 16 Quarries across Dubai.

• From the gulf sea bed near the international water limits of Dubai.

• Marine sand was used because its highly coarse, dense and most importantly, resistant to wave impact.

Quantities of materials and total

development cost

1. Quantities:

• SAND: 321 Million cubic meters.

• ROCKS: 386 Million tons.

2. Costs:

• Sand dredging and rock extraction: $3 Billion

• Overall cost of the project: $12 Billion

Machinery Used

• Barges: Long flat bottomed boats used to transport heavy goods.

• Tug Boats: Used for towing barges.

• Dredges: An apparatus to scoop mud .

• Vibro-compactors.

• Land based heavy machines: Cranes, Bulldozers etc.

Construction process adopted

• As the land reclamation was started in the month of September, the winter was just 2-3 months away.

• Winter in the Persian Gulf comes along with storms from the north.

• Had they reclaimed land without construction of the break-water, the sand would have been washed away.

• If they constructed the whole breakwater first, the they would have fallen behind the schedule.

• For this reason a combined construction approach was therefore implemented.

Break-water’s cross sectional view

Construction of the break-water

• A long stepped break-water inspired from the coral reefs in the Maldives was been used to satisfy the needs of the leader that the view of sea must not be blocked and to provide enough protection from the winter storms.

• This efficient break-water reduced the energy of the wave from 100% to just 5%.

• The model tests were highly satisfactory and hence this design was finalized for the final large scale work.

.

Model testing of the breakwater

Bird view of the breakwater

.

Construction/reclamation of the islands

• The islands were to be made from marine sand.

• The marine sand was directly dredged from the gulf’s sea bed and was then rainbow shot into the sea.

• The islands were to be exactly of the same shape and were to be in the same location as predefined if all islands, as a collection were to represent a miniature world map.

Sand being dredged from the Gulf’s bed

.

Rainbow shooting of

sand into place being

done directly by the

dredger

.

System adopted for correct positioning

• The Global Positioning System (G.P.S) was used for the placement of sand, rocks on the breakwater and to develop exact boundaries of the islands.

• A person would walk along the then developed periphery of an island with a hand held GPS device to record the coordinates and match with the planned coordinates so additional sand positions could be determined. ///ecology inversely affacted

GPS Tracking of preplanned boundaries

.

.

Stabilization of surface sand for increased

bearing capacity by Vibro-Compaction

• Vibro compaction is a ground improvement technique that densifies clean, cohesionless granular soils by means of a downhole vibrator.

• The vibrator is typically suspended from a crane and lowered vertically into the soil under its own weight.

• The vibratory energy reduces the inter-granular forces between the soil particles, allowing them to move into a denser configuration, typically achieving a relative density of 70 to 85 percent.

• The treated soils have increased density, friction angle and stiffness. Compaction is achieved above and below the water table.

Vibro-Compaction

.

Vibro-Compaction

.

Effect on the Ecology & Marine life

• The Sheikh’s idea of not using toxic* materials like concrete and steel but in place of them to use sand and rocks which were naturally occurring was in-turn proved to be beneficial for the marine life of the project.

• Scientists and marine life experts thought that creating such a barrier across natural water would result in the loss of marine life.

• But this resulted in the increase in the marine life by almost a hundred times! (x100)

.

• Using rocks for the breakwater was such a good idea, it helped to grow seawater grass on its surface, which in-fact increased the marine life and oxygenated the water inside the boundaries.

• The marine grass which grew on the breakwater was then also planted in the waterways b/w the islands to help oxygenate the internal water channels.

Effect on the Ecology & Marine life

Marine Life attracted to an artificial reef

.

Transporation Network

• The world islands initially intended to serve as private islands for wealthy individuals but a price tag staring from 15$ Million and which went upto $45 Million didn’t attract many individuals.

• Many property developers bought the islands though.

• The islands are now planned to serve as luxury resorts which will attract a huge tourist crowd.

• The expected number of tourists visiting the islands is nearly a quarter million. For this the waterways between the neighboring islands were made deeper and a bit wider for smooth functioning of the boats.

First sample resort with solar and

desalination plants on the island.

References

• Colin Gibling, “Construction Process and Post-Construction Impacts of the Palm Jumeirah in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.”, Memorial University St. John's, NL .

• Yoshihiko Maeno & Takashi Hasegawa, “Prediction of Properties of Marine sand by in-situ measurement of wave induced pore pressure.” 1986.

• B. Salahuddin, “The Marine Environmental Impacts of Artificial Island Construction”, Duke University, 2006.

• Megastructures- World Island Wonder, NATGEO TV.