Analyzing the Rapid Growth of Dubai
Dubai is a city and province in the UAE(United Arab Emirates) that has experienced an enormous boom in wealth and tourism within the last 20-30 years. By analyzing each aspect of this geographical location using the 5 themes of this class I hope to gain a deeper understanding of how this "City of Gold" sprung out of the ground from almost nothing and came to be. Below I have embedded a map containing information that I found useful during my research. Throughout this post I'll ask you(the reader) to change layers in this map in order to isolate the information that I will be currently referencing.
**Deactivate all layers except "Functional Regions."**
To get the big picture of what Dubai really is, first you have to understand that it is more than a city. Dubai is one of the 7 "Emirates" that make up the United Arab Emirates. Dubai is known as the most wealthy of the 7 Emirates, but most would say that Abu Dhabi has the most power of the 7 Emirates due to its sheer size and population. These functional regions were not determined overnight; over about a 100 year period were they determined from the 1770's to the 1870's, with Dubai being established as a functional region formally in the year 1833. It took over 100 years for Dubai to seize its potential and become a major player in the UAE.
**Deactivate all layers except "Oil Fields."**
Dubai originated as a small fishing settlement. Over time it was taken over by a tribe known as the Bani Yas Tribe in 1830. When this tribe took over, Dubai became a desirable location for the rich to flock to, as it was one of a few places where the people were tax-exempt(declared in 1892). With this factor encouraging immigration, Dubai's pearl industry began to boom. But in the 1930's the global recession hit the Emirate hard, causing the pearl industry to flounder. This all changed in the 1960's when oil was discovered in the Persian Gulf. Immediately the rich flocked to Dubai as the Emirate began to make copious amounts of money. This is where the foundation for the transformation of Dubai was truly laid out. Pinned on this map I have several major petroleum companies that operate in Dubai. While less prevalent today, oil fields are the method by which Dubai chose to kick-start its transformation and utilize its environment.
**Deactivate all layers except "Dubai Landmarks."**
With the boom in the petroleum economy in Dubai slowly starting to dwindle in the 1980's, Dubai had to choose another source for its main income. The main issue with this idea is that Dubai did not really have any other physical exports that could serve as a main source of income; its pearling industry and petroleum industry were not nearly as prevalent as in years past. How Dubai chose to deal with this fact was actually quite smart. The one thing that Dubai did have was a beautiful landscape that Dubai rulers saw as a blank canvas. This beautiful ecosystem began to boom in property development in the hopes of making Dubai a global tourism destination. Today, Dubai is seen as the epitome of luxury due to all of its accommodations. The Burj Khalifa is a luxury hotel that is currently the tallest building in the world. The Burj al Arab is the world's only official 7-star hotel(yes, 7 stars). The World Islands are an artificial archipelago created in the shape of a world map, but are not developed yet for the most part. The 2 palm islands are another amazing man-made feat. They are artificial archipelagos in the shape of a palm tree, and Palm Jumeirah is already fully developed. The Jumeriah Mosque is a truly elegant and beautiful piece of architecture that shows how much money the Emirate was able to spend on it, and comfortably.
**Deactivate all layers except "Climate Landmarks."**
What is interesting about Dubai and its wealth it has acquired is that it is not maintained through selling any real physical materials, but through services. However as I've iterated before, this was not always the case. The Persian Gulf is what allowed this total transformation to be kick-started in that it is the source of Dubai's earlier pearling industry, which led to Dubai's oil boom, which led to the Dubai we know today.
Also of note is the Rub al Khali Desert, which in its enormous size is what gives Dubai its identity as a "desert paradise." Without Dubai's environmental assets, the Emirate would have never been able to find true indefinite self-sufficience.
**Deactivate all layers except "Mobility."**
While known as the City of Gold around the world, what most people don't know about the city itself is that it has a much darker side. When such a gargantuan transformation happens in the span of a few decades as in Dubai, this success is never achieved without some group of people paying the price. The beautiful major landmarks of Dubai were built by workers who were paid laughable wages to create some of the most gorgeous and complex man-made structures in the world. These people are rarely seen however. Most construction work done in the city is completed at night to avoid the blistering temperatures that the city can sometimes experience. These low-paid workers are mostly immigrants(Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi) trying to earn money to send back to family at home. They live in labor camps(more like slums) outside of the city where tourists and photography are not allowed in order to uphold the image of Dubai. Living conditions are awful and grossly unsanitary, but these immigrants need money.
In conclusion, Dubai is a city that sprung up out of the sand in a matter of a few decades to be one of the world's lead exporters of tourism. Its environment provided the rulers of Dubai with methods of making money from nothing, but at the cost of reasonable wages for thousands and thousands of workers that sometimes died under these unsafe working conditions. It doesn't seem that the hype surrounding Dubai will go away any time soon.
**Deactivate all layers except "Functional Regions."**
To get the big picture of what Dubai really is, first you have to understand that it is more than a city. Dubai is one of the 7 "Emirates" that make up the United Arab Emirates. Dubai is known as the most wealthy of the 7 Emirates, but most would say that Abu Dhabi has the most power of the 7 Emirates due to its sheer size and population. These functional regions were not determined overnight; over about a 100 year period were they determined from the 1770's to the 1870's, with Dubai being established as a functional region formally in the year 1833. It took over 100 years for Dubai to seize its potential and become a major player in the UAE.
**Deactivate all layers except "Oil Fields."**
Dubai originated as a small fishing settlement. Over time it was taken over by a tribe known as the Bani Yas Tribe in 1830. When this tribe took over, Dubai became a desirable location for the rich to flock to, as it was one of a few places where the people were tax-exempt(declared in 1892). With this factor encouraging immigration, Dubai's pearl industry began to boom. But in the 1930's the global recession hit the Emirate hard, causing the pearl industry to flounder. This all changed in the 1960's when oil was discovered in the Persian Gulf. Immediately the rich flocked to Dubai as the Emirate began to make copious amounts of money. This is where the foundation for the transformation of Dubai was truly laid out. Pinned on this map I have several major petroleum companies that operate in Dubai. While less prevalent today, oil fields are the method by which Dubai chose to kick-start its transformation and utilize its environment.
**Deactivate all layers except "Dubai Landmarks."**
With the boom in the petroleum economy in Dubai slowly starting to dwindle in the 1980's, Dubai had to choose another source for its main income. The main issue with this idea is that Dubai did not really have any other physical exports that could serve as a main source of income; its pearling industry and petroleum industry were not nearly as prevalent as in years past. How Dubai chose to deal with this fact was actually quite smart. The one thing that Dubai did have was a beautiful landscape that Dubai rulers saw as a blank canvas. This beautiful ecosystem began to boom in property development in the hopes of making Dubai a global tourism destination. Today, Dubai is seen as the epitome of luxury due to all of its accommodations. The Burj Khalifa is a luxury hotel that is currently the tallest building in the world. The Burj al Arab is the world's only official 7-star hotel(yes, 7 stars). The World Islands are an artificial archipelago created in the shape of a world map, but are not developed yet for the most part. The 2 palm islands are another amazing man-made feat. They are artificial archipelagos in the shape of a palm tree, and Palm Jumeirah is already fully developed. The Jumeriah Mosque is a truly elegant and beautiful piece of architecture that shows how much money the Emirate was able to spend on it, and comfortably.
**Deactivate all layers except "Climate Landmarks."**
What is interesting about Dubai and its wealth it has acquired is that it is not maintained through selling any real physical materials, but through services. However as I've iterated before, this was not always the case. The Persian Gulf is what allowed this total transformation to be kick-started in that it is the source of Dubai's earlier pearling industry, which led to Dubai's oil boom, which led to the Dubai we know today.
Also of note is the Rub al Khali Desert, which in its enormous size is what gives Dubai its identity as a "desert paradise." Without Dubai's environmental assets, the Emirate would have never been able to find true indefinite self-sufficience.
**Deactivate all layers except "Mobility."**
While known as the City of Gold around the world, what most people don't know about the city itself is that it has a much darker side. When such a gargantuan transformation happens in the span of a few decades as in Dubai, this success is never achieved without some group of people paying the price. The beautiful major landmarks of Dubai were built by workers who were paid laughable wages to create some of the most gorgeous and complex man-made structures in the world. These people are rarely seen however. Most construction work done in the city is completed at night to avoid the blistering temperatures that the city can sometimes experience. These low-paid workers are mostly immigrants(Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi) trying to earn money to send back to family at home. They live in labor camps(more like slums) outside of the city where tourists and photography are not allowed in order to uphold the image of Dubai. Living conditions are awful and grossly unsanitary, but these immigrants need money.
In conclusion, Dubai is a city that sprung up out of the sand in a matter of a few decades to be one of the world's lead exporters of tourism. Its environment provided the rulers of Dubai with methods of making money from nothing, but at the cost of reasonable wages for thousands and thousands of workers that sometimes died under these unsafe working conditions. It doesn't seem that the hype surrounding Dubai will go away any time soon.
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