Making an Island

Kansai airport as seen from space, a large artificial island.

Creating Artificial Islands

Creating an Island may sound like the work of science fiction but it can be possible. The idea behind this Wikibook is to guide you with the physical aspects of islands.

Making an Island

Creating an island can be as simple as putting a chair in a 0.50m deep sea and calling it an island. Land reclamation projects tend to create bigger surfaces to stand on, which vary from square meters to even square kilometers. Before we start building an island, we need to consider what use it will have first. Here is a list of reasons why we might want to build an island: To have fun, enjoying the sensation of standing on a surface which was previously only water. To grow crops, which can save space and make use of the water. To recycle, by collecting glass bottles, wooden crates and tin/aluminum/steel cans and make use of it. Building islands can indeed encourage recycling. (This should not include plastic. Do not use plastic in this process, as it will pollute!)

Table of Contents

• Motivations
• Methods
• Materials
• Construction Guides
• Plants
• Facilities
• Moving a Floating Island

Examples

Spiral Island I in early March 2000

Famous land reclamation projects include the artificial islands in Dubai, which were built with dredgers loaded with sand and lots of complicated engineering, which is not necessarily what it takes to build an island. As seen on the TV show Ripley's Believe it or Not, in Mexico a person happened to find a sum of broken discarded fishnets and combined them with empty bottled water containers and dirt, to create Spiral Island. One major problem with this is that Mexico is or was trying to annex the island as a tourist site. Also, in Dubai, UAE, there is the construction of The Palm Islands, which are three groups of man-made islands shaped like palm trees. A separate company is also constructing The World, named for its shape, which, when complete, will form a map of the world. Also, Kansai International Airport in Osaka Bay is on a man-made island, as are Chubu Centrair International Airport and Kobe Airport. In Tokyo Bay, Odaiba island, which is a 19th century artificial island, remains a popular tourist destination. The Uros in Peru are a group of pre-Inca people living on man-made islands in Lake Titicaca. The islands are fashioned out of totora reeds and anchored to the bottom of the lake with stakes attached to ropes.

One of the earlier modern artificial island built for the purpose to create a micronation, is the Republic of Minerva, built on the Minerva Reefs, though within months of declaring independence, Tonga invaded. An earlier example is Republic of Rose Island, which was, in a hostile manner, taken over and destroyed by Italy.

External links

• The Republic of ... what?? - The true story of a man's short-lived man-made island country in the 1970s.
• http://www.sealandgov.com/ - The official website for the Principality of Sealand, a former WWII gunnery platform in the North Sea that has been turned into a micronation.
• notes from 03
• Ask Yahoo!: How are man-made islands actually made?
• Offshore oil derricks
• Oil platform security
• Has a section of the different types of oil rigs and how they are anchored
• Composites used in offshore construction projects