The largest collection of theme parks in the world is growing in Dubai, an enormous development of “pleasure zones” with no completion date in sight. They’re not short on money (having raised $55 billion in private investment for the first phase alone); the open end date is largely attributed to the park’s relentless ambitions to expand and develop.

It’s going to be a new city in the desert, a metropolis of actual and virtual fun-tastic amusements where you can live and work and play (and undergo surgery and food shop and be arrested).
The project was unveiled in 2003, with initial plans to spread six distinct “worlds” over 100 square miles. There is Attractions and Experience World, Sports and Outdoor World, and Eco-Tourism World, followed by Themed Leisure and Vacation World, Retail and Entertainment World, and Downtown World.  In total, the complex promised 45 “mega-parks” and hundreds of lesser attractions.

Then, like Sleeping Beauty, it fell asleep.

The 2008 global money mess saw most of the projects shelved and the workforce fired. American entertainment giants including DreamWorks, Universal Studios and Six Flags dropped out of the project.

But Dubai development is relentless, and last September, Dubai Properties Group announced the revival of their Mudon residential project, estimating early 2014 completion.

Some construction resumed this year, with the 72,000 square meter Dubai Miracle Gardens opening last March.  Four areas are now operational, but still undergoing construction:

• Dubai Motor City
• Dubai Outlet Mall
• Global Village
• Al Sahra Desert Resort

Actual development has clearly scaled back.  The reality, pictured below, is incompatible with artists’ renderings.

But this is Dubai, surely someday some variant of this thing will hatch. And what about its environmental impacts?

Attempts to find a formal assessment proved futile; it’s possible each development is being treated as a standalone project.  But positive features promised by, say, “Eco-Tourism World” are surely be offset by the “Snowdome”  that will house a mountain ski deck and snow play area, a toboggan run and ice rink, and something called a “penguin-arium”.

Author disclaimer: I’m allergic to theme parks.  Scratch that: I hate theme parks.  Revise that. I’d chew off my right arm rather than spend time in another American theme park, historically the world’s biggest and loudest and most crammed with overspent, overstressed families. But I have kids, there’s no escape.

The official tagline for Disneyland – I’m talking the original Pasadena park – is “The Happiest Place on Earth”, an ironic claim given the armies of crying kids and frustrated parents, standard ticket-holders every day I went.

What will Dubaiworld’s catchphrase be?

The post Futuristic Dubailand Theme Park City Growing Ahead With $55 Billion appeared first on Green Prophet.

Really, this shouldn’t surprise us. After all, this is the same Emirate that built the towering Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest building when it first broke ground, and a ski slope (populated by live penguins, no less) in the middle of the desert.

Miracle Garden has been a huge success so far, according to Arabian Business. Only a few months old, the garden of 45 million flowers has already attracted 400,000 visitors, and the new attractions are expected to increase traffic to the improbable site.

(Bear in mind that Dubai and the other six Emirates have virtually no freshwater resources. All of the nation’s water supply is sucked up from the Arabian/Persian Gulf and then processed in energy-intensive desalination plants.)

In order to complete the next phase, DPG has partnered with Akar Landscaping & Agriculture Company to expand the existing Miracle Garden to include the massive vertical garden, though no specific details have been announced, along with an edible garden, where people will be encouraged to pluck their own fruits and vegetables.

There will also be a breeding station, where 10,000 live butterflies representing 40 different species will be hatched.

When the entire Dubailand project is complete, it will comprise a total area of 107 square miles, 45 “mega projects” and 200 sub projects, according to Wikipedia.

That is double the size of Walt Disney World Resort.

Organized in a series of worlds, namely Attractions and Experience World, Sports and Outdoor World, Eco-Tourism World, Themed Leisure and Vacation World, Retail and Entertainment World, and Downtown, Dubailand’s developers have already attracted $55 billion in private investment funds.

Vertical gardens are important and we look forward to seeing this one, but shouldn’t Dubai be a little more concerned about food security? Or something else a little less bombastic?

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