Artificial island
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
An artificial island is an island that has been man-made, rather than formed by natural means. It is usually constructed on an existing reef or may be an expansion of a small natural islet. Traditional artificial islands are created by land reclamation. Some recent developments have been made more in the manner of oil platforms, but whether these structures should be considered islands is not universally agreed upon. A less distinctive type of artificial island is formed by the incidental isolation of an existing piece of mainland by canal construction.
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[edit] History
Despite a popular image of modernity, artificial islands actually have a long history in many parts of the world, dating back to the crannogs of prehistoric Scotland and Ireland, the ceremonial centers of Nan Madol in Micronesia and the still extant floating islands of Lake Titicaca. The city of Tenochtitlan, the Aztec predecessor of Mexico City that was home to 250,000 people when the Spaniards arrived, stood on a small natural island in Lake Texcoco that was surrounded by countless artificial chinamitl islands.
Many artificial islands have been built in urban harbors to provide either a site deliberately isolated from the city or just spare real estate otherwise unobtainable in a crowded metropolis. An example of the first case is Dejima (or Deshima), built in the bay of Nagasaki in Japan's Edo period as a contained center for European merchants. During the isolationist era, Dutch people were generally banned from Nagasaki, and Japanese from Dejima. Similarly, Ellis Island, in Upper New York Bay beside New York City, a former tiny islet greatly expanded by land reclamation, served as an isolated immigration center for the United States in the late 19th and early 20th century, preventing an escape to the city of those refused entry for disease or other perceived flaw, who might otherwise be tempted toward illegal immigration. One of the most well known artificial islands would be the Île Notre-Dame in Montreal, built for Expo 67.
The Venetian Islands in Miami Beach, Florida, in Biscayne Bay in Miami added valuable new real estate during the Florida land boom of the 1920's. When the bubble that the developers were riding inevitably burst, the bay was left forever scarred with the remnants of a failed development project. A boom town development company was building a sea wall for an island that was to be called Isola di Lolando, but could not stay in business after the 1926 Miami Hurricane and the Great Depression, dooming the island-building project. The concrete pilings from the project still stand today as another development boom roars onward around them, eighty years later.
[edit] Modern projects
Some contemporary projects are much more ambitious. Kansai International Airport in Japan is the first airport to be built completely on an artificial island in 1994, followed by Chubu Centrair International Airport in 2005 and New Kitakyushu Airport and Kobe Airport in 2006.
Dubai is home to some of the largest artificial island complexes in the world, including the three Palm Islands projects, The World and the Dubai Waterfront, the last of which will be the largest in scale.
[edit] Political status
Under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea treaty (UNCLOS) [1], artificial islands have little legal recognition. Such islands are not considered harbor works (Article 11) and are under the jurisdiction of the nearest coastal state if within 200 nautical miles (Article 56). Artificial islands are not considered islands for purposes of having their own territorial waters or exclusive economic zones, and only the coastal state may authorize their construction (Article 60). However, on the high seas beyond national jurisdiction, any "state" may construct artificial islands. (Article 87)
Some attempts to create micronations have involved artificial islands such as Sealand.
