Engineering the Emirates: The Evolution of a New Environment

Abstract

Few places on this earth have shown such a remarkable development in a short time span as the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Today the country is the leading site for the latest ultramodern architecture and revolutionary landscaping applying the most up-to-date technology. An index of this development is that over a third of the world's cranes are found in the emirates, a fact often proudly mentioned in their public discourse. A number of megaengineering projects are implemented at the moment. Absolutely nothing seems impossible here! It is a paradise for enthusiastic developers and investors, and for experts such as engineers and architects seeking challenges.As a human ecologist I am interested in human-environmental relationships. In my thesis I completed a study in the UAE on the theme that is best expressed in an easy slogan as "modernizing nature -naturalizing modernity" (Ouis, 2002a). Based on this thesis and the most recent megaengineering projects in the UAE, the riddle in this paper is: How is it possible that the mega-projects in the UAE are presented as environment friendly in the public discourse? This question is based on the assumption that such megaengineering projects are somehow problematic for the environment, a point to which I will return later in this paper. First, I will first in give a brief introduction to the UAE and some of its most spectacular megaengineering endeavors. It has been necessary to rely on Internet as a source, in part because so few books provide accounts of the most recent development. My objective is not to provide only impressive facts, but rather to show a smorgasbord of these projects to illuminate their scope. By giving examples from the discourse regarding these projects, I will problematize the notion of their benefits for the environment. Finally, I analyze this discourse based on theories about ecological modernization.