Welcome to TDC. This is our mini-documentary on the most ambitious, fascinating infrastructureMegaprojects of the near future. The rulers of the United Arab Emirates have insane amounts of money to spend. Thanks toeveryone’s thirst for oil, they’ve been on a construction spree unlike any the worldhas ever seen for such a small country, investing in one ambitious infrastructure project afteranother. At one point, 24 percent of all the world’s construction cranes we in Dubai. Unfortunately, that was before the 2008-2009 global financial meltdown, which led to muchof the investment in the city drying up faster than the water on somebody who just got outof the pool at the Burj Khalifa. But the government insists that many of these projects have simplybeen delayed, and are putting their money where their mouth is with the recent approvalof a $32 billion expansion of Dubai’s Al Maktoum International Airport that will breakground by the end of 2014. When complete, it’ll suddenly have the capacity to becomethe busiest airport in the world in both total passengers - at 220 million a year - and totalcargo of 12 million annual tonnes of goods that can move through it--that’s almost3 times more than what takes off from the runways of the world’s current leader, HongKong’s International Airport. It’s terminals will able to hold 100 of the massive new AirbusA380’s that are over 2/3ds of a football field long and cost $300 million a pop. TheUAE’s Emirates airline already owns more of those planes than anyone else in the world. It’s the largest airline in the Middle East and will eventually move into the Al Maktoumairport to help jump start activity. The government’s plan is for the airfield to be the heartbeatof a city within the larger city of Dubai called World Central, which the UAE thinkswill be home to 900,000 residents in the near future. The airport also hopes to be the centralhub for the emerging Middle East, North African, and South Asian economic bloc known as MENASA. But time will tell whether the Shaikh’s vision for Dubai actually becomes a reality,or fades like some vicious mirage. This is Songdo International Business District, the world’s most futuristic urban area. It’s being built 40 miles southwest of the second-most populated city in the world, Seoul,South Korea. The $40 billion project is along the waterfront in the city of Incheon andis embracing two key concepts that urban planners are in love with: The first is Aerotropolis,which means the airport is integrated into the urban center instead of banishing it faroutside of the city. This allows for shorter trips to and from the place that’s goingto get you out of town--this’ll be an emerging pattern in 21st century planning as air travelcontinues to become accessible to more and more people in our increasingly interconnectedworld. Songdo is brilliantly directly connected to the airport via the 7-mile long Incheonbridge so you’ve just got a straight shot that gets you there in like 10 minutes that’salso got these incredible views and is the first thing visitors see coming into the city. The other key theme is Ubiquitous City, which is a uniquely Korean concept where every device,component, service is linked to an informational network through wireless computing technology,allowing for greater coordination and a more efficient and synchronized city than has everbeen possible before. An example of this is Songdo’s trash system, which won’t relyon garbage trucks, because a network of tubes will suck in the garbage straight from thecan and through a system of pipes, transport it efficiently to treatment facilities. Songdo’sso dedicated to being a model for sustainability that it has set aside 40% of its land areato be outdoor spaces like parks and it’ll become the first city in the world outsideof the United States to achieve LEED certification, which is the highest energy consumption andwaste standards possible with currently available technology. As a tip-of-the-hat to other greatcities, Songdo will also incorporate replicas of New York’s Central Park and Venice’shistoric canals. Overall, construction is currently half done. It already has 67,000people living there studying and working at its many schools, including the foreign campusesof four American universities, but it’s struggled to attract Korean businesses asthe government is refusing to give tax incentives for relocation, because that would createan unfair playing field favoring Songdo over other cities in the country. Still, if itstays squarely focused on the future, Songdo’s a long-term investment that’s likely topay off. Nicaragua is about to embark on what may be the boldest and riskiest Megaproject in thehistory of the world. One that will change it forever. It’s going to build the biggestcanal in the world . The $50 billion Nicaragua Grand Canal will cut the country in half toconnect the Atlantic Ocean with the Pacific, running through the biggest lake in CentralAmerica. At 173-miles-long, it’ll dwarf the 120 mile-long Suez Canal in Egypt anddirectly compete with the Panama Canal 250 miles to the south, through which more than15,000 ships already pass each year. But in the coming years, many more ships full ofgoods and raw materials are going to try and pass back and forth from the Pacific to theAtlantic to connect Europe, Brazil and the Eastern Coast of the United States, with Chinaand the rest of Asia. The story of how little six-million-man Nicaragua, the second-poorest country in the WesternHemisphere, is able to afford such an expensive project is a fascinating case study of globalization,and how capitalism is increasingly driving geopolitical decision-making. In June of lastyear, Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega’s Sandanista party also controlled parliamentand - without any real debate - gave a 50-year, no-bid contract to Chinese telecommunicationsmagnate Wang Jing to build and manage the proposed canal. And, it just so happens that,also last year, according to a report in the LA Times, Wang hosted a number of Nicaraguanofficials and businessmen on a trip to China, where the powerful and connected Wang supposedlyflaunted his extreme wealth and was accompanied at all times by Chinese military officersand other high-ranking governmental officials. So, it’s tough to believe him when he insiststhat the Chinese government is not financially backing the project, especially when we alreadyknow that China is using state financed companies to buy more and more assets in the West. Theopportunity to own the world’s most valuable shipping lane seems too tempting for the Chinesegovernment to pass up. The supposedly democratic government of Nicaragua is using a page out of China’s playbook,by refusing to release any of the studies about the impacts of the canal until December2014, the same month construction will begin. That’s because there is a loooong list ofenvironmental and humanitarian concerns. The project will tear through countless ecosystemsand communities, and rip into the source of much of the country’s fresh water, LakeNicaragua. The residents whose land is on the canal route have received no word on whatthe government plans to do for them in terms of compensation and relocation. But, as easy as it is to criticize the way the project is being handled, it’s alsofairly hypocritical of me, as an American, to mount a very convincing argument againstthe plan. Afterall, about a hundred years ago, US President Theodore Roosevelt basicallytook control of Panama and pushed through the canal there, a project that’s benefittedAmerica time and time again, and has made Panama economically better off in the longrun. But we’re not living in 1914. . . Now is the time of social media-fueled revolution, where images and video fly around the worldinstantly, empowering even the poorest locals to use the power of the global community torally support for their cause and exert political pressure in unpredictable ways. So, what I’msaying is that it may have been easy for President Ortega see all that money flying around andsecretly, singlehandedly approve a massively disruptive project like this, but when thosebulldozers start tearing apart the countryside - and people’s homes - there’s probablygoing to be hell to pay for not consulting the voters at all. This could be shaping upto be another one of those important moments of struggle in world history between the powerfulhave’s and the have nots. On the one hand, you have the limitless funding of the Chinese who want that flag-in-the-dirt,statement-making moment for their country of staking a claim in the Americas. We knowthe canal would benefit corporations in the west through the shipping and trade benefitsI outlined earlier. And with construction set to begin in Nicaragua next month - theredoesn’t seem to be any stopping it from starting. But on the other hand, this thing is going to take six years at a minimum to finish,and if we’ve learned anything from recent history, it’s that a lot can happen in sixweeks or six months, let alone six years. On a person-to-person basis, the United Arab Emirates has the biggest Ecological Footprintin the world thanks to its prolific oil production and the massive construction boom that’sbeen going on there for the last decade. So it’s surprising to learn that the UAE ishome to Masdar--the world’s first zero-carbon, zero-waste city. To meet this ambitious goal,it’s powered only by renewable energy, like a 54-acre 88,000 panel solar farm beyond thecities’ walls. That’s right, I said walls. The designers studied ancient cities to learnthe most effective planning methods to reduce energy consumption. One of the key thingsare walls that helps to keep the high, hot desert winds away from its inhabitants. Theyalso raised the entire foundation of the site a few feet above the surrounding land to keepMasdar cooler and spaced the buildings much closer together to keep the streets and walkwaysnarrow, and mostly in the shade. These techniques - combined with 130-foot wind towers thatsuck air from above and convert it into a cool breeze blowing on the street - mean Masdaris a comfortable 70 degrees fahrenheit when just a few meters away, the thermostat riseswell above 100. Plus, there’s no driving in the city and any car that enters is parkedat the outskirts. A system of driverless electric vehicles then ferry people from place to placeunderground, and a light rail system is also available above ground, which means there’sno need for streets. And in a move that cuts both water and electricity consumption morethan half, there are no light switches or water taps--everything is controlled by movementsensors. This unprecedented level of environmental consciousness has won it hard-earned endorsementsfrom environmental conservation groups like Greenpeace and the World Wildlife Fund. TheGerman engineering giant Siemens has located its Middle East headquarters there, as hasthe International Renewable Energy Agency. The Masdar Institute for Science and Technology- a small postgraduate university that was founded through a collaboration with MIT - occupiesone of Masdar’s first completed buildings and is already producing great work and first-classresearchers. So the city undeniably has a solid foundation, but it’s got a lot todo still if it’s going to meet its ambitious goal of housing 50,000 residents and hostingoffices for 60,000 more commuters. The city’s co-founder admits that Masdar is “a fractionof what it was supposed to be back in 2006 when we announced it. At the beginning ofthe project, nobody really anticipated how difficult it is to build a city. " This underscoresthe point many urban planners around the world have made: that we should be focused on makingour existing cities more sustainable instead of building brand new ones. But even if Masdaronly teaches us one or two major things about what’s possible when it comes to sustainableurban design - and it does seem like it’s already done that - then it’ll have beenworth it, even if it takes much longer to achieve its overall vision, or if it ultimatelyfails. Because let’s be honest, the UAE was going to spend that $20 billion in oilrevenue on something, so it’s better for everyone that its going to an important experimentlike Masdar rather than another row of gold and marble crusted hotel skyscrapers or anelectricity-sucking indoor snow park. This is the future--maglev trains. Japan’s all aboard. They’re spending a staggering$85 billion over the next 30 years to connect the island’s three largest cities: Tokyoto Nagoya to Osaka. That’s over three hundred miles that you’ll be able to cover in about67 minutes by racing through the countryside at over 300 miles per hour. Maglev technologyuses powerful magnetic charges to move rail cars that float several inches above a concreteguideway, rather than riding on steel wheels. This frictionless system allows for a smootherride at significantly higher speeds than traditional high speed rail. In contrast, California’splanned high speed rail system that’ll eventually connect San Francisco, Los Angeles, and SanDiego, will only be able to travel at top speeds of 220 mph, but its estimated overallcost is ten billion dollars less than the Japanese system and will cover a distancetwo and a half times as long. The Chinese city of Shanghai has had a short maglev linein operation since 2004, but the Japanese line is the world’s first intercity linkto gain public approval. The project’s called Chuo Shinkansen - or as the Japanese referto it, Rinia Mota Ka - and is a culmination of 40 years of Japanese maglev developmentthat began with an unlikely partnership between Japan Airlines and Japanese National Railways. What’s really impressive about this project is that JR Central - the company that’sbuilding the line - will finance the project without public money, thanks largely to thesuccess of the bullet train it’s run from Tokyo to Osaka since the mid 1960’s. Thecompany’s also pushing hard to construct a maglev line between the American capitalcity of Washington DC and New York, which would showcase the technology to the Americanmarket and the rest of the western world. The Japanese government has even offered tofully finance the 40 mile first leg of the US project from Baltimore to DC, a proposalPrime Minister Shinzo Abe directly pitched to President Barack Obama during a meetinglast year. But critics of Maglev say the costs outweigh the benefits. Opponents have raisedquestions about the sheer monetary cost of the project, its environmental impact, andwhether it is really needed. Tunnels will be blasted through some of Japan’s highestmountains to build the Chuo Shinkansen line. But regardless of what the critics say, somethinghad to change. When the Maglev system is done it will help alleviate the overcrowding onJapan’s existing rail system and make it feasible for commuters into Tokyo to livefurther outside of the city than they can now. Many of the projects that we’ve profiled in our Megaprojects series have a real purposefor advancing society, or at least meeting the needs of a growing world economy. Thenthere’s Azerbaijan’s ridiculous Khazar Islands, a project that - despite all theprogress in the world - is the perfect example of everything that’s still wrong with itspower structure, but more on that in a moment. The creatively named Azerbaijan Tower willbe the world’s tallest building, about 800 feet taller than the current leader, the BurjKhalifa, and, insanely, twice as tall as the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere,New York’s One World Trade Center. The Freudian showpiece of the $100 billion project, AzerbaijanTower will rise above the capital city, Baku, and will be surrounded by 55 artificial islandsbuilt in the Caspian Sea with land gathered by completely destroying a nearby mountain. There will also be at least eight hotels, a Formula One racetrack, a yacht club, andan airport. So basically, we’re talking about Donald Trump’s fantasy. Now, it’sone thing to build an over-the-top city like Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, which isone of the most-developed places in the world, and a completely different thing for it torise in Azerbaijan, which has a per capita GDP that’s not even ⅕ as much as the UAE. This madness is the brainchild of the billionaire developer Ibrahim Ibrahimov, who has extremelycozy ties with the corrupt government of the newly oil rich nation of Azerbaijan. Justhow corrupt is Azerbaijan? In a 2012 report by watchdog group Transparency Internationalthat declared 2/3rds of the world’s countries “highly corrupt,” Azerbaijan’s PrezIlham Aliyev stood out from the pack as the report’s infamous, “person of the year,”with untold amounts of money stashed in various locations around the world. But back to PresidentAliyev’s good buddy, Ibrahimov, who lazily came up with the tacky idea for the megaprojectthat’s basically a copy of Dubai’s island development and mega-tower while on a flighthome from, you guessed it, Dubai. He argues that Khazer Islands will be home to 800,000people, but doesn’t explain how those people will afford its expensive apartments. Insteadof investing in the future by maybe funding a network of world class universities - whichAzerbaijan isn’t even close to having - in a country that borders no ocean and producesno product that the rest of the world wants, besides oil, the government thinks its a goodidea to build this. I doubt many of the nine million people of Azerbaijan think it’sa very good idea. In fact, in a possible sign of things to come, last year, Azerbaijanisin a city across the country, got so fed up with the corrupt regime, they rioted for twoentire days. But look, the capital is doing some things right, Baku made Lonely Planet’stop ten ranking of the best nightlife spots in the world. I just wonder how much theypaid to get on the list. No list of Megaprojects would be complete without including the largest-ever scienceproject. The International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (or, ITER) is a collaboration betweenChina, the European Union, India, Japan, Russia, South Korea, and the United States that isunder construction in Southern France where researchers will attempt to see if they can,essentially, recreate the power of the Sun and harness it in a steel bottle. Gas willbe heated to over 150 million degrees in a massive steel frame using giant magnets thatwill force some atoms together. In this experimental reactor, the hope is to produce 10 times moreenergy than what is used to initiate the reaction, or the equivalent of 500 megawatts of powerfor 1,000 seconds. Although electricity won’t be generated at the ITER facility, a fusionpower plant would use the heat generated to drive turbines and produce power. Unlike nuclearfission, which are what all nuclear power plants are today, fusion reactors should becompletely safe, with no risk of a producing a runaway chain reaction and no dangerouslong-living radioactive waste. The fact that nations who are competing in nearly everyarea of geopolitics and economics are coming together to collaborate on a $50 billion projectis a sign that the science is incredibly promising and the potential benefits to humanity areprofoundly game-changing. That’s why countries that represent half of the world’s populationand account for 2/3ds of the global economy are participating: because solving fusionwould mean prosperity for all, the closest thing to limitless energy we can fathom. Thismonth, after the completion of the ground support structure which took four years tofinish, the second phase of construction began: the walls of the seven-story building wherethe experiment will take place. But we’re still several years away from turning thething on. The complex will make its first attempt to produce plasma in a fusion reactionin 2020, with regular operations beginning in 2027, 11 years behind schedule and over40 years after the program was first initiated in 1985. But no matter how long, or how manytries it takes to get it right, the prospect, the hope of living in a world powered by thistype of energy that we wouldn’t need to fight over, or pump out of the ground, thatwe wouldn’t need to burn, that wouldn’t harm our precious planet, that’s probablyone of the most optimistic, hopeful ideas I’ve ever heard, and it’s definitely oneworth waiting for. China is about halfway done building the largest expressway system in the world, and it’sdone so at a feverish pace over the last 25 years to keep up with the rise of the automobileas the country - and the world - has shifted away from a rail-based transportation system. The first expressway within the National Trunk Highway System, as it’s called, opened in1988 and today, just 26 years later, the system is over 65,000 miles long. In the ten yearssince 2004, the network has tripled in length. Each year, China’s now building new expresswaysequivalent in length to the distance of going coast-to-coast and back in the United States. The Chinese system exceeded the total length of the US interstate highway system back in2011. This crazy expansion has happened because the Chinese have embraced the car at a staggeringpace. This next mind-blowing fact pretty much sums up this entire video: as the country’smiddle class boomed and tens of millions of people suddenly could afford to buy cars,in the 20 years from 1985 to 2005, the number of passenger vehicles in China increased from19,000 to 62 million cars on the road, that’s a mind-blowing increase of 323,000%. And that62 million number is more than tripling to 200 million by 2020. That’s why we’veseen those stories that I thought were a joke the first time I read them, of traffic jamsaround Beijing stretching over 60 miles and lasting for 11 days. So this project is sorelyneeded simply for the country to function. When it’s finished, it will have cut totaltravel times between cities throughout the country, by half, on average. Overall thetotal cost of building the entire system is $240 billion dollars, that’s easily thebiggest infrastructure project in human history, with $12 billion a year being invested through2020. It’s been able to afford to do this without adding a national fuel tax because95% of the system are toll roads owned by private, for-profit companies. This is a problem,as tolls are expensive at over 10 cents per mile. . . which is more than the cost of fuelitself. But regardless of how the roads are paid for, or whether, you drive on them inyour gas or electric car, or ride in a self-driving car. The Chinese economy and quality of lifeof its people will be significantly better thanks to this ambitious project. It seemsthe whole country is embracing the Chinese saying, “Lutong Caiton,” wealth followsthe extension of motorways. India faces one of the most challenging situations in the world. It has 1. 2 billion people spreadover a vast country. More than 350 million of whom will move into cities in the comingdecade, which means some 500 new urban centers will need to be built from scratch. And eventhough India’s sheer size means that its economy ranks third in the world in purchasingpower, overall, it’s relatively poor and underdeveloped. It’s also young. The averageIndian is just 27 years old, compared to the average American, who’s a decade older. This means that most of the population is about to hit their prime working years—theseare all people who need jobs to be created now. That’s why the government is embarkingon the largest infrastructure project in Indian history: the $90 billion Delhi Mumbai IndustrialCorridor, whose backbone will be a 920 mile long dedicated freight corridor, basicallya set of multiple rail lines that will exist solely to move goods from the factories wherethey are produced to the sea and airports where they can be exported to market. It’sdesigned to cut the logistical costs of manufacturing goods to make India the cheapest place inthe world for a company to build its stuff and - in turn - triple the amount of merchandiseit exports from 2010 levels by 2017. Japan is the major partner behind the project becausethe Japanese economy is based on a technology industry that needs to build its productsat the most competitive rates in the world. The overall effort will include a 4,000 MWpower plant, and at least three brand new seaports and six airports. And all along theroute, 24 new cities will spring up with each aiming to be superior to any existing Indiancity in terms of the quality of infrastructure, planning, management, and services offered. With natural resources scarce - and climate change a concern of any good urban planner- the use of technology has been stressed to make sure this boom will be as clean andsustainable as possible. Roads are also a major part of the plan with thousands of milesof expressways planned to ease congestion. The project is a priority of Prime MinisterNarendra Modi, who entered office in 2014 after leading his BJP party to a dominatingwin in the 2014 election, giving him a mandate to enact his vision for making India a globalmanufacturing superpower. It seems the Indians are attempting to follow a similar blueprintfor success the Chinese put into action over the last 40 years. With a population nearlyas big, Indians are rightly asking, why not us?If you were playing Sim City, you’d want to go about building your metropolis the sameway the Saudi’s have with King Abdullah Economic City. And just like other great leadersof men, you’d probably name it after yourself too, which is exactly what King Abdullah did. You’d also focus on job-creating infrastructure and a dream university to attract the bestand brightest. Saudi Arabia is the world’s dominant oil producer, and is a country thatknows how to play the game. While its flashier neighbors like Abu Dhabi and Dubai get allthe publicity for their megaprojects, the Kingdom is embarking on a far more ambitiousproject that’s focused squarely on creating the most cohesive, well-planned city in theArab world. The $100 billion enterprise on the coast of the Red Sea is about an hour’sdrive north of Jeddah, the second-largest city in Saudi Arabia, and plans to expandinto an area about the size of Washington DC. That location is no coincidence, saysFahd Al Rasheed, the man who’s in charge of growing King Abdullah Economic City - whichwe’re going to shorten to just its initials, KAEC - “you’re talking about 24 percentof global trade going through the Red Sea, and this is a trend that’s never been addressedby a Red Sea port. ” That’s why KAEC’s port is going to be massive, with an annualcapacity of over ten million shipping containers, which would make it one of the busiest portsin the world. So cargo is KAEC’s first major transportation hub. The second is Haramainstation, one of four stops on Saudi Arabia’s planned high speed rail network that willconnect the new megacity to Jeddah, Makkah, and Madinah. This will bring thousands ofvisitors to KAEC right from it’s inception, with officials hoping that some will naturallytake jobs and stay there, fueling its expansion. At first, the whole plan struggled to gainmuch traction with investors, “but,” says Al Rasheed, “then we reoriented ourselvestowards building that demand, creating that support and it’s completely shifted. Nowwe have captive demand — all our apartments are full and we have waiting lists for hundredsof people, literally. ” Part of that shift focused on KAEC’s IndustrialValley which is centered on a large petrochemical plant and has more than 70 companies liningup to set up bases there. And then there’s the cornerstone of anythriving city: a great university. Enter, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology- which began instruction in 2009 with a staggering $20 billion endowment, making it the thirdbest-funded university in the world behind Harvard and Yale. This capital injection hasallowed it to lift off like a rocket in its first five years. It’s recruited some ofthe best talent from over 60 countries around the world--scientists who’ve carried theschool to an eye-opening 99. 9% research record score. The research teams at King Tech areadvancing many important fields like solar cell technology and cancer therapy. It teachesin English and is the first mixed-gender university in the Kingdom. Plus, with just 1200 postgraduateson an 8,900 acre campus, there’s plenty of room to expand in every direction. With forty percent of Saudi Arabia’s citizens under 15 years old, the plan is for the megacity- by itself - to create upwards of a million jobs for all of those young people to growinto. In the end, it may be true that Saudi Arabiawould be a bone-dry desert wasteland without it’s exploitation of the vast fields ofblack gold underneath it, but at least - in the twilight of his life - King Abdullah isdoing all he can to set his people - and the rest of the world - on a slightly better paththan the one they were on when he took over just nine years ago in 2005. And if that’shis legacy, he deserves to have a city named after him. Thanks for watching. I hope you enjoyed this video, and if you did, you’ll love our videoprofiling 10 promising renewable energy sources of the future or our mini-doc on robotic armiesand the militaries of the future. Make sure to like this video to help it spread, it reallyhelps us out. And hit that subscribe button to stay up to date on all of our daily videos.
