A new island of hope rising from the Indian Ocean

A new island of hope rising from the Indian Ocean Hassan Mohamed The new, artificial island of Hulhumalé was built using millions of cubic metres of sand pumped from the seabed The modern island of Hulhumale is taking shape 8km off the north-east coast of Malé island in the Maldives in direct response to the threat posed by inexorably rising sea levels.. Hassan Mohamed The new, artificial island of Hulhumalé was built using millions of cubic metres of sand pumped from the seabed “After the 2004 tsunami, a programme for enhancing resiliency through safer islands was introduced,” explained Areen Ahmed, director of business development at the Housing Development Corporation that oversees the City of Hope. “Hulhumalé is being developed through careful considerations of climate change in its architecture and communities.” Ongoing land reclamation using millions of cubic metres of sand pumped from the seabed has raised the new island more than 2m above sea level, while the island’s growing City of Hope is seen as a vital new settlement to relieve the over-crowding that currently blights Malé, where more than 130,000 people cram into 1 square mile. Hassan Mohamed Hulhumalé has been designed with green urban planning initiatives and sustainability in mind “The ultimate benefit of building a Smart City from scratch is that Hulhumalé will be seen as a city of resilience – built by the people of Maldives for the people of the Maldives,” said Professor Hassan Ugail, a Maldivian computer scientist who is helping to make Hulhumalé a smart city, alongside his work as director of the Centre for Visual Computing at the UK’s University of Bradford.