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Dubai is one of
seven emirates that form the UAE - the United
Arab Emirates - in the Middle East.
Dubai is second to neighboring emirate, Abu Dhabi, in geographic
size, but is number one in population. In recent years, the landscape of Dubai has shown dramatic
changes.
Though it has been in existence
for well over a century, Dubai
only opened itself to foreign real estate investors in 2002. Since that time,
the landscape has changed remarkably due to the rapid property evolution it’s
undergone. Man-made islands, skyscrapers taller than anything in New York City,
and more residential property than you can imagine, has turned this Persian
Gulf emirate into something that would be nearly extraterrestrial-in-nature to
occupants from the 1800s.
Currently, Burj Dubai is the
tallest man-made structure in the world and it’s not even yet completed. As of
September 1, 2008, Burj Dubai stood at 688 meters (2,257 feet).
Construction of this property in Dubai’s Business Bay is expected to take roughly five
years, total. The cost of the construction is rumored to be over four billion
U.S. dollars.
Construction projects in Dubai, such as this, have led to Dubai’s continuing to host an annual
Cityscape Dubai event. This event has attracted hundreds of thousands of
visitors from around the world, and is marketed as “the largest business-to-business real estate investment and
development event in the world.? This year’s event, the seventh annual, will be
held from October 6-9, 2008, at the Dubai International Exhibition Centre.
As with any
rapidly-changing landscape, the impact on Dubai
will be felt in many areas. The impact is financial, environmental, and
physical. Some of the impact is good, some is not.
Anytime you
increase an area’s population, you are also increasing its footprint on the
ecosystem. Dubai
is no different than any other area that has made way for technology, industry,
and real estate. Natural growth of flora and fauna has and will continue to be
impacted.
Human output, in
terms of sewage, garbage, and other forms of pollution, will also have an
impact. Dubai
is not a magic land where garbage will disappear, leaving no longer-term impact
on its environment. The possibility exists for illegal dumping into the Persian
Gulf and the same overflowing landfills that the United States suffers with.
The hot climate
of Dubai also
leads to plentiful air conditioning, much of the year. This will impact the
region in terms of increasing growth of energy usage. Similarly, though Dubai is feeling some of
the profit from high oil and gas prices, they are now feeling the downside.
Since high gas
and oil is leading to inflated costs of nearly everything everywhere, Dubai is finding that
their spending for new construction materials and anything they have to import
is taking a greater chunk of money from them. Stable gas and oil prices will
not only benefit the rest of the world, it will eventually help , it is also their responsibility to protect that landscape. Hopefully
this is a fact not already lost to Dubai.
About the author
Tags: abu dhabi, cityscape dubai, construction projects, dramatic changes, dubais, hundreds of thousands, landscape, man made islands, mso, occupants, orphan, persian gulf emirate, real estate investors, residential property, skyscrapers, style definitions, style name, tallest man, times new roman, united arab emirates