HULHUMALÉ
Hulhumale, Maldives
Ministry of Construction and Public Works
Ousted Maldivian president Mohamed Nasheed highlighted the unique threats posed to Small Island Developing States (SIDS) when he held a press conference underwater in 2009. Hulhumalé is a reclaimed island near the nation’s capital, Malé, that began in 1997 and was inaugurated in 2004, with additional phases that are ongoing to develop the island. The island’s height was established based on the best existing estimates for sea level rise, which approximated a maximum rise of 1 meter by 2100. Today, projections suggest that sea level rise may reach 1 meter before 2100, and possibly exceed that estimate. The island is the fourth largest in the Maldives, and includes a road system, a hospital, artificial beaches built with inland concrete, and will eventually host 3,075 housing units. The project is still in the midst of the second phase, which included building additional housing units, and was expected to be completed in 2016. The island was raised explicitly to meet existing and projected housing, industrial and commercial development needs within the region of the capital, and was undertaken by a government-owned corporation alongside a Singaporean corporation. While atoll islands have changed shape in the past due to over washing and sedimentation, Hulhumalé is specifically designed not to flood or change shape, though it may accrete sediment. This presents a different challenge between atoll islands and developed islands with infrastructural improvement. Hulhumalé is an example of an adaptive measure that may need to be recalibrated due to improvements in modeling and scenario planning and require additional planning to understand the needs of citizens whose livelihoods are based on other islands.
2004 - 2005
988 acres
3 feet above sea level
988 acres
3 feet above sea level
tags: coastal lands, managed retreat, elevation, adaptation, anticipatory adaptation, remain, engineering, densification, climate refugees, displacement, Asia, Indomalaya, Tropical Rainforest
References:
Kälin, Walter. “Conceptualizing Climate-Induced Displacement.” In Climate Change and Displacement: Multidisciplinary Perspectives, edited by Jane McAdam. Oxford: Hart Publishing, 2010: 81–103.
Brown, Sally et al. "Land raising as a solution to sea-level rise: An analysis of coastal flooding on an artificial island in the Maldives." Flood Risk Management 13 (2020):e12567.
Kelman, Ilan et al. "Here and now: perceptions of Indian Ocean islanders on the climate change and migration nexus." Geografiska Annaler: Series B, Human Geography 99, no. 3 (2017):284-303.