The World's Future Megaprojects
April 19, 2015 7:09 AM   Subscribe

A short documentary (30min) that introduces ten of the worlds most ambitious megaprojects currently under development and paints a picture of the astonishing scale and political landscape of ongoing globalisation (SLYT).

The projects featured are: Dubai World Central (United Arab Emirates); Songdo International Business District (South Korea); Tokyo-Osaka Maglev Train (Japan); Masdar City (United Arab Emirates); The Grand Canal (Nicaragua); National Trunk Highway System (China); International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor [ITER] - Fusion (France); Azerbaijan Tower(Azerbaijan); Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor (India); King Abdullah Economic City (Saudi Arabia)
posted by Another Fine Product From The Nonsense Factory (25 comments total) 36 users marked this as a favorite
 
The temperature in the streets is generally 15 to 20 °C (59 to 68 °F) cooler than the surrounding desert. The temperature difference is due to Masdar's unique construction. A 45-meter (148 ft) high wind tower modeled on traditional Arab designs sucks air from above and pushes a cooling breeze through Masdar's streets. The site is raised above the surrounding land to create a slight cooling effect. Buildings are clustered close together to create streets and walkways shielded from the sun.

Masdar City was designed by Foster and Partners. Foster's design team started its work by touring ancient cities such as Cairo and Muscat to see how they kept cool. Foster found that these cities coped with hot desert temperatures through shorter, narrower streets usually no longer than 70 meters (230 ft). The buildings at the end of these streets create just enough wind turbulence to push air upwards, creating a flushing effect that cools the street.
Pretty neat combination of modern and ancient technology going on here.
posted by Drinky Die at 7:19 AM on April 19, 2015 [13 favorites]


How about the Great Green Wall across the Sahara?
posted by sammyo at 7:56 AM on April 19, 2015 [3 favorites]


The New Yorker, April 11 - The Trouble with Megaprojects
posted by TimTypeZed at 7:59 AM on April 19, 2015 [2 favorites]


The New Yorker, April 11 - The Trouble with Megaprojects

That is a great article:

More common are worthy but poorly executed megaprojects, or megaprojects that never should have been attempted in the first place. The “iron law of megaprojects,” he wrote in a 2014 paper in Project Management Journal, is that they are “over budget, over time, over and over again.” Nine out of ten megaprojects experience cost overruns, and most take much longer to build than expected. What results, Flyvbjerg says, is the “survival of the un-fittest”: the least deserving projects get built precisely because their cost-benefit estimates are so misleadingly optimistic.

A few years back the projects I saw being most criticized were the mega-dams, because of both the immediate and long-term ecological and human costs, and the normally optimistic (and inaccurate) accounting of their benefits. It's worth noting that much of the US prosperity of the twentieth century was built on the shoulders of megaprojects, and although we've largely left the business of building (or even maintaining) major infrastructure, we are just now beginning to take stock of the ecological and other costs of those earlier projects.

I've worked on projects budgeted into the millions, but never even a component of anything on the scale of the megaprojects discussed in the FPP or the New Yorker article. For all their obvious faults, I would love to work on a piece of one someday, just to see something of that scale taking shape out of nothing.
posted by Dip Flash at 8:17 AM on April 19, 2015 [3 favorites]


Masdar's shaded streets and walkable layout looks great; Songdo, with all those wide, wide highways separating standalone towers, looks horrible.

Although, regarding Masdar: "At the beginning of the project, nobody really anticipated how difficult it is to build a city."

Heh.
posted by postcommunism at 8:17 AM on April 19, 2015 [1 favorite]


Until we get a competent AI, these projects will rarely go smoothly, as human minds can't comprehend all the details, costs, or outcomes.

Then again, anything that gets us closer to building space elevators is a net positive in my book.
posted by blue_beetle at 9:15 AM on April 19, 2015 [2 favorites]


None of these are in the United States. Had this documentary been made fifty to a hundred years ago, I would bet that at least half of the projects would have been in the U.S.
posted by javelina at 9:35 AM on April 19, 2015 [2 favorites]


I think if the wind tower in Masdar is based on ancient Persian and Arab designs then it does the opposite of what is described, not sucking cool air from above, but through convection, drawing hot air from below and pulling it upward, creating a cooling breeze.
posted by Conrad-Casserole at 9:44 AM on April 19, 2015 [2 favorites]


None of these are in the United States. Had this documentary been made fifty to a hundred years ago, I would bet that at least half of the projects would have been in the U.S.

The US is done building things (other than weapon systems) for the forseeable future. Until the political environment changes, we'll be very lucky to maintain our current infrastructure, much less (gasp!) spend any money on futuristic projects.
posted by T.D. Strange at 9:53 AM on April 19, 2015 [6 favorites]


I think if the wind tower in Masdar is based on ancient Persian and Arab designs then it does the opposite of what is described, not sucking cool air from above, but through convection, drawing hot air from below and pulling it upward, creating a cooling breeze.

I think the wind tower is a Windcatcher, which, if Wikipedia is to be believed, can catch a high, cool, breeze and redirect it to a lower level.

So it doesn't suck, but it can push.
posted by YAMWAK at 10:04 AM on April 19, 2015


YAMWAK, after reading that wikipedia entry, i think we're both right. I was remembering the version used with a qanat which does utilize upward airflow and evaporative cooling.
posted by Conrad-Casserole at 10:12 AM on April 19, 2015


That would make sense. Good technology either way. Doesn't need to be modern to be the best solution.
posted by YAMWAK at 10:17 AM on April 19, 2015 [1 favorite]


The US is done building things (other than weapon systems) for the forseeable future.

Big infrastructure projects are out there: California High-Speed Rail
posted by charlie don't surf at 10:33 AM on April 19, 2015


Until we get a competent AI, these projects will rarely go smoothly, as human minds can't comprehend all the details, costs, or outcomes.

I don't see why AI would make any difference at all. GIGO, after all.
posted by happyroach at 10:56 AM on April 19, 2015 [1 favorite]


The US military is probably the biggest megaproject of them all. Even just the carrier program is mind blowing.
posted by Drinky Die at 10:57 AM on April 19, 2015 [4 favorites]


yea, the foster-inspired masdar seems most impressive to me (like china went the wrong way not staying with bikes ;) hopefully it doesn't turn out to be just another 'world of tomorrow' EPCOT center (or am i not giving it enough credit given the disneyfication of everything? or like the new york world's fair, chicago world's fair, paris expo, and crystal palace exhibition before that!)

anyway, speaking of inspiring megaprojects as a kind of an answer to ITER, elon musk says: "We've got this giant fusion generator in the sky called the sun, and we just need to tap a little bit of that energy for purposes of human civilization." so blanketing significant chunks of the world in solar panels (and efficiently storing it) is sort of a notable omission...

oh and as to unlocking civilizational achievements, here are his top five :P
  1. the internet
  2. sustainable energy
  3. space exploration
  4. artificial intelligence
  5. rewriting human genetics
which imho seem like more worthwhile endeavours -- as 'megaprojects' writ large -- to be pouring resources into, not that they can't all be worked on at once!
posted by kliuless at 11:02 AM on April 19, 2015 [1 favorite]


Haven't watched the doc yet (I will!) but am curious what role subjugated labor plays here.
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 11:25 AM on April 19, 2015 [3 favorites]


Until the political environment changes, we'll be very lucky to maintain our current infrastructure...
Apparently we are so disinterested in infrastructure (John Oliver link), that the thought of future maintenance is making new projects unlikely (the opposition to California's 'SuperRail' is increasing daily). Which is perfectly appropriate for America's role as an Empire in Decline - all the money HAS to go to Defense.

Oh, wait, William Shatner has made an extraordinary proposal - to build a Great Pipeline to California to save it from drought... 30 billion dollars croudfunded by a Kickstarter?!? He's got to be joking right? After all, he IS Canadian...
posted by oneswellfoop at 2:01 PM on April 19, 2015


Hey, William Shatner stole my idea! But I was joking when I said "They have too much water in Washington. Let's build a big pipe. They get rid of their excess water and make a lot of money, and California gets the water it needs." My idea went a bit further: there would be three pipes. One for water, and two for Elon Musk's Hyperloop train (one for each direction). Wouldn't people rather travel to Seattle than LA?

If there's not enough money for that, we can build the 1950s idea of water cannons.
posted by eye of newt at 2:14 PM on April 19, 2015


They have too much water in Washington indeed.
posted by Mars Saxman at 4:35 PM on April 19, 2015


Gees, even British Columbia may be having a drought. You are going to need to make that pipe really long Mr Shatner!
posted by eye of newt at 6:35 PM on April 19, 2015


human minds can't comprehend all the details, costs, or outcomes.

But that's why we have project management. Like someone says above, the US carrier program is unbelievably massive, and part of the technology that supports giant projects is disciplined project management at a scale to match.

Ok, maybe not all the outcomes.
posted by sneebler at 6:40 AM on April 20, 2015


I can't find a link right now, but there have been a couple proposals by businessmen connected to the Alberta government to build a giant canal from north-central Alberta to northern California. One of the projects involved using nuclear blasts to dig part of the trench through the mountains. Because one of the consequences is bound to be profit!
posted by sneebler at 6:45 AM on April 20, 2015


Speaking of drought, even though I am enjoying the weather know, I'm pretty sure most of Oregon is going to be on fire this summer since we're way behind in rainfall and snowpack accumulation.

It's all a matter of priorities, long-time Bugle listeners will remember that nobody will ever be able to compete with Dubai on insanely stupid buildings. I am a bit surprised some jingoist hasn't tried to get funding for a Super-Duper-Mall of America in response, though. On the other hand, we're more focused on drones and less on space or working roads. So again, priorities.
posted by fifteen schnitzengruben is my limit at 10:25 AM on April 20, 2015


Speaking of drought, even though I am enjoying the weather know, I'm pretty sure most of Oregon is going to be on fire this summer since we're way behind in rainfall and snowpack accumulation.

This is a common misconception-Oregon is NOT behind average for precipitation. In some cases it is above average for several watersheds. The problem is that there isn't any snow-it all fell as rain. Due to the nature of the cascade aquifer and the large dams on the Willamette and Columbia the river valleys (where everybody lives) are just fine-our water falls rain every year. The problem is the high elevations are VERY dependent on heavy snow packs to maintain soil moisture levels and keep trees-most of which are very fire prone-moist and non burny. So yea, the high cascades are going to have a bad year. Everyone else-not so bad.
posted by bartonlong at 1:00 PM on April 20, 2015


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