Dubai Urban Mega Project Jumeirah Palm

Erasmus University College Brussels - CLASS-program

Dubai’s Jumeirah Palm Mega Project

Steven Degraeve Ruth Drastrup Zamora
Community Development Class 2011-2012
INTRODUCTORY NOTE
SHORT DESCRIPTION OF THE PAPER
Mega projects have become an important new development strategy in globalizing cities, and a new or emerging form of developing ineconomic, technological, social and political life, influenced by new global flows of capital.
This research seeks to achieve a better understanding of the nature of urban development and its implications for Dubai.
The research involves an assessment of whether urban mega projects actually develop as a result of globalization processes and draws conclusions on conflicting discussions abouteconomic growth and social change.

SHORT DESCRIPTION OF THE SELECTED PROJECT
The Palm Jumeirah is an artificial archipelago created using land reclamation by Nakheel, a company owned by the Dubai government in United Arab Emirates. It is one of the three islands called the Palm Island (Palm Jumeirah, Palm Jebel Ali and Palm Deira) witch extend into the Persian Gulf, increasing Dubai’s shorelineby a total of 520 kilometers. The Palm Jumeirah is the smallest and the original of the three Palm Islands under development by Najheel. It is located on the Jumeirah coastal area of the emirate of Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
PERSONAL MOTIVATION- WHY DID I CHOOSE THIS PROJECT?
The decision to focus my paper research on Dubai came out of interest in the dramatic changes that hadoccurred in Dubai in recent years. The case study site was chosen from several reasons.
JPI is one of the most concentrated areas of development within the city. The development was more advanced than in any other project and thus considered the most suited as a subject of study.
In the last decades, there has been increasing interest in mega project research and other urban developmentstudies. Mega projects research allows analysis of the interaction between global economic forces and local factors and culture, to produce specific local outcomes. One of the attractions of mega project research is that it can question implicit assumptions about familiar institutional and social relations.
Globalization drives urban change, and influences the language of urban policy-making andpolitics. The process involved in globalization and responses to them have important consequences for the development of what is arguably a new urban policy paradigm for cities. The effect of globalization at the regional and local level depends to a great extent on the existing social, economic and regulatory structures and the way that these impact on global/local interplay. We have seen the growthof “world cities” such as London, New York and Tokyo, but there are a host of other cities around the world which are trying to develop their own position in the world order. How they go about this and how successful they are depends on their vision and on their ability to achieve that vision.
Another reason for choosing this project was that it entailed major change in ideology and economicplanning. It was the largest urban mega project in the whole of the Middle East. The project was also the first of its kind in the world.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction…………………………………………………………………………….5
Description of the context
* History ………………………………………………………………………….6
* The case study Jumeirah Palm Island megaproject………………………….7
Description of the project
* Table with some keyfeatures of the JPI megaproject……………………….8
* How JPI was designed, planned and implemented…………………………..8
* Phases of the implementation……………………………………...…11
Controversy……………………………………………………………………………14
Effects of the project:
* The social dimension…………………………………………………………14
* The political dimension………………………………………………………15
Environmental impacts……………………………………………………………….16...