Posts: 1,275
Threads: 136
Joined: Apr 2005
Right, I admire them for using their oil money to find a niche or reason for the area to be nice ... but I don't know enough about the climate to really know if UAE / Dubai is likely to really grow into a tourist spot. Potentially if in addition to the crazy islands, they crater to people whom are *not* Islamic and whom speak some other language, they could have a good approach.
The downside is the application of the construction and rush to build is not a good idea. Granted, I am a water resources engineer, but I could have told you simply by looking at the design that there would be vector control and water quality (stagnation) problems. I found the Wiki article to actually focus on these and other environmental problems (which interested me).
Also the idea of starting construction *ahead* of the schedule of the Dutch construction companies is a particularly bad idea (in my professional opinion). Now it could be that there was a huge population pressure / growth that sort of dictated the rush ... California has the same problem. But I have a feeling there will be little mitigation for the land owners who formerly had beach front property ... although perhaps in the UAE the Sultan or king or whatever he wants to call himself owns everything to begin with.
The reality here is that whatever they are doing there now, will start to appear in other countries too. The Middle East already has developed much of the advanced water filtration systems you think of when you hear people talk about desalination (Flordia actually has helped too). So from an engineering POV, this is neat ... and I bet the guy pulling the strings is like me and curious more than anything else. But I'm also worried about what we don't know that may happen later -- and by nature I tend to be on the "Let's study this and talk about it for decades" government mentality. :jump:
(It's geographically incorrect, but it's there)
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