Marine and coastal developments in the Middle East are increasingly attracting global attention. Dr. Benno Boer, Ecological Sciences Advisor Arab Region at UNESCO, Craig Thackray, Head of Marine at Scott Wilson, and Magdy Youssef, Director of the Lusail Complex at Qatari Diar, were approached to provide input from the NGO, consultant and developer perspective on why this is so. Dr. Benno Boer, UNESCO, commented:
"The Arab States in the Gulf have established themselves as important oil and gas producers and exporters. This caused a lot of social and economic transformation. Very important international airports and airlines have been established, and destinations such as Dubai, Doha, Abu Dhabi and others are now very well known in the world. The leaders and the people have wisely developed their countries as peaceful locations that are highly attractive for business. Massive coastal and marine development projects have been developed more recently and this has generated even more visibility."
Magdy Youssef, Director- Lusail Administration Complex, Qatari Diar, agreed adding, "Elsewhere global markets are not keeping pace with expected growth opportunities in the Middle East so there is a renewed interest in the global community to take a hard look at coastal development opportunities within the region. Coastal developments are relatively new to the region and interest is expanding into integrating the use of land and sea."
Commenting on the changes achieved in the last ten years Dr. Benno Boer said, "In the past, large-scale coastal construction was mainly based on gas and oil facilities, harbours, and desalination plants, but now it includes massive man-made islands for human living, as well as airports, hotels, etc. In addition much of the coastline has been used to establish weekend recreational housing. There is a huge change that took place in the last fifteen years. When I first came to the Gulf in the late 1980s, there were plenty of beautiful remote beaches, and undisturbed coastal habitats. A lot of this has now been converted into man-made structures."
Thackray said there has been significant change in the Kingdom of Bahrain in the last 10 years. "The Kingdom has seen a transformation of the original coastline with the provision of reclaimed land for future housing, industrial and infrastructural development."
The international construction community is looking to draw on the experiences from the Middle East mega construction projects, Magdy commented. His perspective of the essential element to marine project success is: "A clearly defined masterplan is the key element that controls the types and sizes of building to ensure maximum exposure to the sea. The transition areas between land use and sea use must be clearly integrated into the master plan, such as roads, parking, public facilities, safety, and security and most importantly the waterfront land use to create appropriate activities along the waterfront."
