Dubai has excellent prerequisites for the creation of innovation bridges similar to the Frankfurt bridges

The emirate of Dubai expects a population growth in the next decades, for which living space has to be created. The government has been working successfully for years to make the metropolis increasingly attractive for expatriates and tourists. The existing large wide motor roads, though, provide good inner-city connections, but do not allow people to live within walking distance of the city itself. The Innovation Bridges would be a whole new and more fundamental "dimension" of upgrading for Dubai than any previous approaches:

1.The space above the wide downtown streets can be built over with bridge space. If only one-third of the  bridge space is used as building land, over 30 million square meter of buildingspace can be created with only 3 to 4 stories of development. If only 27 million square meters is used as residential space, over 600,000 people can be housed on the bridges. The remaining 3 million square meters can be used for shops, educational facilities (toddlers‘ day nurseries, kindergartens, schools, etc.), gastronomy, leisure facilities or even service providers of all kinds.

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2.As the roads under the bridges in Dubai will also be increasingly used by e-cars in the coming years, the noise and exhaust pollution under the bridges will fall significantly. Accordingly, the living space on the bridges will be of particularly high quality, so that with an average price per square metre of 7,500 Euros/sqm, a total real estate portfolio value of around 22,5 billion euros will be created on the Dubai Innovation Bridges.

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3.The high quality of the bridge residential and commercial areas is favoured by several parameters:

•A green garden landscape: when two thirds of the bridges are greened and well watered, it will have the appearance of an oasis in the middle of the city

•Optimal connection to everything Dubai has to offer: The bridges run de facto through the middle of the city‘s building stock, so that with the help of autonomously driving traffic on the bridges all points of the metropolis can be reached as well as all offers on the bridges.

•An oasis in the middle of a great ultra-modern metropolis : life similar to the one in old towns takes place on the "Bridge of Islamic Peace" section, with culinary delights, international educational opportunities, medical-therapeutic services and social facilities. On the "Dubai Bridges of Paradisiacal Gardens" magnificently planted areas are created with fruits of all kinds, which become wonderful recreational areas for people.

Green innovation bridges with a total length of over 300km can be built over these wide roads of Dubai - and with 30 million sqm of building space they can meet the increasing housing demand of the Emirate.

Of the 30 million square meters of bridge space, a third would have to be built on to provide new living space for over 600,000 people. By comparison, the total population of Dubai is around 3.3 million.

The piles of the 75,000 pillars on which the green Dubai Innovation Bridges rest can all be geothermally activated for cooling, i.e. they can conduct heat into the ground in summer - in winter, in turn, this heat can be brought back up from the storage tanks for heating, especially at night

Air conditioning accounts for more than 50% of household and building electricity consumption in countries like the United Arab Emirates.

On the Dubai Innovation Bridges, however, around 70% of this electricity consumption can be eliminated if all buildings are provided with thermally activated surfaces: On the one hand, this allows buildings to be cooled with the help of geothermally assisted heat pumps by extracting heat from the buildings in summer and sending it through the 75,000 columns of the bridges into the earth.

On the other hand, however, in order to prevent the soil from heating up over the years, the heat collected in the soil must be released again during the winter months, which leads to the second potential electricity saving:

The heat stored underground in summer can be used to heat the buildings on and near the bridges in wintertime, as temperatures in Dubai drop to as low as 10 °C in winter. In addition, the stored heat can be used to heat outdoor swimming pools in winter.

White photovoltaics can be used to supplement the power supply on the bridges

 In addition, around 90 GWh/a of electricity p.a. can be generated photovoltaically on the sides of the Innovation Bridges using white or very bright photovoltaic modules. The restriction to very bright PV-modules is good for the small-scale urban climate, because thus the heating up the body of the bridges and their surroundings is avoided: If one were to use conventional black photovoltaic modules, the yield would indeed increase to over 160 GWh/a - but at the same time this would affect the albedo effect, negatively, in the urban area where the Dubai Innvoation Bridges run along, which is not advisable in hot regions. White photovoltaics are less than half as efficient as black ones, but much more comfortable in a hot environment.

Currently, most roofs in Dubai and also many parking lots are kept in light color. Even in commercial areas, light-colored surfaces are the rule.  Therefore, it is also important in commercial areas not only to rely on black PV, but to consider white PV in between, as well: In Dubai, government incentives for rooftop PV or parking lot PV canopies would be very useful. And for white PV, these incentives should be particularly strong, since the yield of white PV is 13% efficiency, and not 25% efficiency as is the case with black PV modules.

Dubai has the key ingredients for green innovation bridges in the desert climate: state-of-the-art desalination plants and solar farms

To irrigate around 20 million square meters of green bridge surface (i.e. the entire bridge surface minus the building construction windows), more than 80 million cubic meters of water are required per year. And Dubai has the expertise for desalination on a grand scale: The Jabal Ali complex is the largest desalination plant in the world, producing over 700 million cubic meters of drinking water per year.

Energy must be available for the desalination of seawater: Just over 2 kWh per cubic meter, or about 160 GWh/a, is needed for the 80 million cubic meters of bridge irrigation water. This energy should not be fossil, but should come from renewable generation. But Dubai has the expertise in this area as well: the reverse osmosis plant in Al Taweelah is already 30% powered by solar energy.  And Dubai basically has enough solar energy: The Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park is expected to generate a total output of 2,800 GWh per year in the final expansion phase.

Dubai's bridges are expected to be CO2 neutral after a very short period of time: In order to generate significant amounts of green energy in a timely manner using simple methods, Energy Bands can be created along the emirate's major roads

In order to build more than 300 km of bridges with concrete, a lot of energy is needed, which should definitely be generated green, so that the Dubai bridges can become CO2-neutral after a very short time due to their other CO2-saving effects, or even have their targeted positive CO2 balance in a timely manner. Energy Bands are best suited for this purpose: Another 300 km of highway in Dubai can be equipped with them quickly and easily. They can generate over 5.1 TWh/a of electricity. Once the bridge is built, the power of the Energy Bands can be used to desalinate the water, which would be needed for the greening of Dubai.

If the large parking lots along the Dubai Innovation Bridges are covered with photovoltaics, up to 2 TWh/a can be generated

Of the 2 TWh/a, 0.2 TWh/a come from white PV modules: This is because bright white surfaces are a visual enhancement, especially in parking lots at mosques, near the sea, on high-rise residential buildings and in street canyons; in addition, bright surfaces prevent residential areas in the city from being heated up by dark surfaces.

The future e-vehicles in the parking lots will thus not only be protected from the sun, but can be charged while parked there. The pillars of the bridges can also serve as "filling stations„ (i.e.charging points) on the ground besides the bridges. And last but not least: All vehicles on the bridges can also be supplied with drive energy - be it electricity, or hydrogen: Because with the bridges as a distribution network, either electricity or hydrogen can be brought to all areas of the city.

In total, Dubai can generate or collect and use 10 TWh/a with the help of the green innovation bridges and the Energy Bands - about one fifth of its current energy demand

The photovoltaic potential of Dubai is far from exhausted with the areas that have been included in the simulations within the framework of the present concept.

However, there are not yet a comprehensive recycling options developed for solar panels. Therefore, in regions such as the Arabian Peninsula, it makes sense limit the electricity production with photovoltaics to 10 TWH/a for the time being, and to continue to generate a large proportion of electricity through solar towers.

With the autonomously driving traffic on the Dubai Innovation Bridges, the city gets yet another additional transport network

As on the Frankfurt Bridges, you can get on a train or bus on the Dubai Innovation Bridges, or else call an individual vehicle via an app. The main lanes are always on the edge of the bridges and have many stations that can be used to reach not only everything on the bridges, but also many destinations along the bridge for the first time without a car.

In addition, from the main lanes at the edge, smaller lanes pass through the bridge quarters again and again, whereby they do not represent a real traffic road for the pedestrians with only 15km per hour there, but they fit in pleasantly.

As on all bridges worldwide, there should be buses and trains for passenger transport, but also passenger cars that can be called via app for individual trips

The modular concept of the Frankfurt Bridges vehicle fleet can also be applied to the Dubai bridges, allowing a variety of different vintage car bodies while maintaining the same technically advanced equipment inside: autonomously driving and powered by electricity or hydrogen.

Future visions of Dubai should be designed in such a way that people like to live there or like to stay there as tourists

Glassy skyscrapers with wacky steel and concrete constructions are no longer a specialty nowadays, because many skylines around the world now look exactly like this. Such skylines are undoubtedly beautiful as photo motifs from a distance, but they are not very attractive when you imagine that you have to stay in these street canyons or even live there. 

Concrete, steel and glass also heat up and are therefore less suitable for hot regions. The popular impressive nocturnal illumination of such skylines is also very energy-intensive and therefore not sustainable. What used to be modern is therefore still beautiful or fascinating as an overall view, but it is clearly no longer forward-looking nowadays.  Traditional buildings, on the other hand, which are adapted to the heat with materials and construction methods that have been tried and tested for centuries, are designed in terms of urban planning in such a way that small green spaces, arcades, seating areas, etc. invite people to linger between them. They are particularly well suited to attract people, have a relaxing and refreshing effect and thus correspond to the actual modern ideals of life in the 21st century. 

Dubai has magnificent Islamic architecture even in secular buildings

In Dubai, all the traditional designs of Islamic architecture can be found again, newly built: impressive tile art, widened pointed arches, window and door grilles pierced with bobbin lace, impressive domes, battlements and towers, ornamentation in all colours and much more.

While the Jumeirah Mosque in Dubai and the Sheikh Zayid Mosque in Abu Dhabi, like the Presidential Palace, radiate a fascinating clarity with their bright exteriors, their interiors display all the magnificent craftsmanship that the Orient has to offer.

Even in shopping malls, the interiors are often executed with great love for traditional arts and crafts: a homage to the tradition of one's own cultural region, which is rarely found in Western countries - last but not least, because it is becoming increasingly rare to find the right craftsmen for craft challenges throughout Europe who would be still able to master traditional artistic building methods (see the difficulties in the reconstruction of Notre-Dame).

The United Arab Emirates, on the other hand, have proven that they can still build in the same way as they did in earlier times, that they have neither fear of contact nor problems of competence in creating an architecture that has for centuries attracted people from all parts of the world to the Orient to admire these pearls of architecture. 

On the Innovation Bridges of Dubai - similar to the Frankfurt Bridges - about half of the bridge buildings and bridgescape could be modern, while the other half revives the tradition of Islamic architecture

A neighborhood, which is characterized by Islamic architecture, will only receive the true character of a city quarter, if the widest possible brigde-section is chosen for this purpose. In Dubai, the E11 (Sheikh Zayeed Rd) is a good choice. It runs parallel to the coast for one or two kilometers through the city and is almost continuously 14 to 18 lanes wide. In addition, there are the loops for motorway on- and off-ramps, whose center areas are in some cases nicely planted, but are often only greened in parts or are completely barren.

The quarter of islamic architecture could be 40km long and between 60 and 150 metres wide - so large that Islamic architecture from almost every country could be realised there.

The section with magnificent Islamic architecture is aptly named "Dubai Bridges of Islamic Peace" - true to the saying of Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid: "Bridges connect people, cultures and hearts".

The United Arab Emirates is a champion of peace and tolerance. Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid launched the "Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Award for World Peace" in 2011, followed by the "Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Award for Tolerance" in 2016. This makes the UAE the ideal place, not only in terms of its competencies, but also in terms of its value system, to revive the architectural art of a wide range of countries with an Islamic culutre: "Tolerance is synonymous with the UAE," says Sheikh Mohammed on Twitter, "it is a fundamental value of our people and an essential element for our development and prosperity in the future." The "Dubai Bridges of Islamic Peace" can become a magnificent, humane, sustainable component of this state philosophy.

The path on the Dubai Bridges of Islamic Peace leads through numerous countries

For centuries, Islamic architecture has influenced parts of the Asian and Arabic continents, but also the European continent. Accordingly, it is also possible to borrow motifs and forms from Spain, Italy, Bosnia, etc.. This is because the revival of traditional building methods is not about putting exact replicas on the bridges, but rather building in the same style as in these countries, with the same craftsmanship and attention to detail, as well as with the sustainability that is given in traditional building methods through the use of materials and the long durability of the buildings. This means that one can also adopt elements from the numerous sacred buildings, especially mosques or even shrines, in the construction of normal buildings.

In hot countries, window space must be used sparingly, and domes are a good solution for this, as a room with a dome does not look cramped, even without windows, but rather sublime. In dome construction, a fascinating effect is often achieved by inserting an opening or window area only in the top of the dome. The light that enters through this is twice as bright and spreads out in a particularly effective way by reflecting off the dome wall. In addition, similar to caves, domes allow the heat in the room to rise upwards and cool down. Such domes are frequently used in Islamic architecture, not only in mosques, but also in baths (hamams) or in bazaars, for example.

Even more splendid lighting effects can be created with window strips, which are used all around the dome - although the room still remains cool even with such window strips.

Another tradition that goes with regions with hot summers: fountains in public spaces, as found especially in Morocco. On the Dubai Bridges of Islamic Peace, fountains can be installed on the walls of buildings as well as in gardens and parks, where you can wash your hands or fruit etc. and which have a cooling effect.

Door portals and entrance areas are not only magnificent in Islamic art, but above all offer shade - with the vault surfaces often decorated with muqarnas

Tinted glass protects from the sun in hot climates, but at the same time allows light to pass through, creating a magical play of colours when the sun is in the right position.

Tiles, mosaics or painted ceramic art of all kinds not only decorate walls and domes, but also protect the whole building - a principle that can also be applied to modern buildings.

Depending on the respective country-section, the ceramic art on the Dubai bridges varies in colour and motifs.

Traditional handicrafts are long-lasting and therefore sustainable: not only ceramics but also wooden crafts have been worked in such a way that they are still in good condition today, centuries later.

The country sections on the Bridge of Islamic Peace also have educational offerings in their languages – here: a sample section from the Turkish quarter

For example, if one walks through the Turkish quarter of the bridge and starts in the middle of it in front of the Water Canal, one first walks through a quarter with many small alleys with a multi-storey development like the street in Istanbul towards the Galata Bridge. In the centre of the alleys there is a small square with a fountain.

If you walk further to the area above the bridge, you will come to a large, horticulturally designed playground, where you will find many overshadowed sandboxes, playground equipment and also water games. The playground is an inclusion playground, which is also designed for children with disabilities.

Leaving the playground, you enter a mixed residential area where there are also scattered teahouses and Turkish cafés, as well as small Turkish bakeries and the like. From the residential area with quiet contemplative small gastronomy you get further to a residential area in which houses and apartment blocks are arranged around classical oriental courtyards.

Walking through the streets in the centre of this area, you come to a bright, friendly square, on one side of which there is a Turkish library, with reading rooms on the upper floors, through whose large windows you can look out over the canal and green areas as far as Safar Park. On the lower floor there is a reading café with a terrace facing the brightly planted square.

The E311 (Sheikh Mohammad Bin Zayeed Road) is another 14- to 18-lane road in Dubai: Over it, the "Dubai Bridges of Paradisiacal Gardens" can lead to the Miracle Garden

Sustainability plays a significant role in the United Arab Emirates: In 2008, the Zayed Sustainability Prize was launched and has developed an extraordinary impact. It is awarded for innovative and practical contributions in the fields of health, nutrition, energy and water and has already directly and indirectly improved the lives of 370 million people. The idea of an environmentally sustainable approach to agriculture is also at the forefront. In a statement, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum said in 2020: "Sustainable agriculture is an economic and social necessity for our country.“

The Dubai Bridges of Paradise Gardens are planted accordingly with Dubai's sustainability goals in mind.

Moreover, the paths and gardens on these bridges should be provided with pergolas overgrown with climbing fruits or flowering climbing plants: They can provide shade and at the same time walkers can pick fruits when they are ripe - so in the truest sense a paradisiacal bridge world.

Everything can be found on the gourmet line, including baked goods from different regions: a dream for tourists as well as for the Dubai population

But also research can be done on the bridge sections of the paradisiacal gardens

The Abu Dhabi Investment Office (ADIO) has already invested over 100 million in the Food Tech Valley project in Dubai: This includes public-private partnerships with the Ministry of Food and Water Security and Water Properties to explore urban planning of future AI-driven food-independent cities. The UAE is the next food tech hub in the Middle East, and the Dubai Bridges of Paradise Gardens will be able to use the protected areas behind the autonomous traffic to grow, research and, if necessary, develop and cultivate desert crops that grow in different desert areas around the world.

The UAE has already built up impressive agricultural expertise - but the biggest challenge remains irrigation

The UAE has over 177 highly developed farms, of which over 100 are already using organic farming techniques. But the problem of water supply or exploitation of groundwater reserves and the consequences of global warming remain: According to the World Bank, the United Arab Emirates had 75,000 hectares of arable land in 2002, but by 2018 it had just over 42,000 hectares.

The underfloor irrigation concept of the Frankfurt Bridges can also provide relief on the Dubai Bridges

Since the plants are supplied with water from below with this irrigation technology, significantly less irrigation water evaporates on the surface. At the same time, the entire irrigation can be ensured with control technology, so that no personnel capacity is required. And when using plastic-free underfloor systems, the entire irrigation technology can be made extremely sustainable - especially if the water source comes from desalination plants and is used extremely sparingly by the underfloor irrigation.

The principle of subsurface irrigation can also be applied to green areas or agricultural land: there only has to be an impermeable layer in the soil above which the water-bearing layer can develop

Natural oases are created in a similar way: A layer of soil that is impermeable to water ensures that incoming water from a spring, a river or even groundwater, which only penetrates the layer at certain points, can be collected and does not immediately seep away again. If such layers (e.g. of clay) are created at a depth of approx. 2 to 3 metres, the soil above can be "soaked" with water from the desalination plants without it immediately disappearing again. The water is not poured onto the soil from above, but distributed in the soil through a pipe system (e.g. made of clay pipes) below the surface. The plants can extract their water from this saturated soil from above with their roots. There are already research concepts for this, but they require suitable test fields - for example at the ends of the Dubai Innovation Bridges, which open out as a water transport system in desert areas around Dubai.

Depending on the planting, the water-impermeable layer should be placed 1 to 3 metres deep: In this way, the respective plant roots remain in the soaked area.

Trees can also be planted in the oases created in this way, although in many cases the impermeable layer must be placed deeper than 3 metres. A segmentation of the area to be planted according to the required root space must be planned.

Trees or palm trees are important for green areas in Dubai, as they provide shade for people and also other plants and protect them from sandstorms. With proper irrigation, some varieties of fruit trees can also be planted. With the help of such technologies, beautiful oases of recreation can be created around Dubai.

Targeted infiltration of water into areas to be greened can be done around Dubai at all branches of the bridges: A green belt can be created

If this is to be implemented on a large scale, it is likely that a further desalination plant will be required, which could be operated using Energy Bands.

The green belt around Dubai could consist partly of arable land and partly of plants that resemble an oasis greenery and are comparatively frugal

Around 510 square kilometers of arable land could be created, and around 90 square kilometers of desert-ready urban greenery. The agricultural area could cover a significant part of the UAE's fruit, vegetable and grain needs - the rest could be exported to other parts of the Arabian Peninsula, especially when it comes to (increasingly popular) organic products.

The planting of such a green belt around Dubai can also be the subject of research and development - a nice example is the Tarim Desert Road

The Tarim desert road was planted with 20 million plants in 2003 to protect it from sand drifts. There, in the Turpan Basin, the largest botanical garden for Azeri desert flora has been created: with 700 different desert plants, 50 of which are endangered species. The Dubai Desert Conservation Reserve Center could also create such an ecological, green research belt around Dubai.

The Emirates has expertise in organic farming and also in making farming an experience for the people and tourists

Industrial agriculture does not make as much sense in Dubai as organic farms, which produce high-quality products, create a beautiful landscape belt around Dubai and at the same time have experiential value for people. Over 100 farms in the Emirates already produce organic products.

The green belt needs 2.6 billion cubic meters of water per year: A new desalination plant must be built for this purpose

The emirate of Dubai covers an area of 4,114 square kilometres, whereas the city has only 35 km2. The possible green belt can cover 600 square kilometers, an area that so far receives only 42 million cubic meters of precipitation per year - 70 liters of water per square meter p.a., which means 190ml on average per square meter per day.

However, arable farming in desert regions requires 12 litres of water per square metre per day. That means, a total of 2.6 billion cubic metres of water per year will be needed for the green belt.

If the local water balance of the green belt area is increased from 42 million cubicmeter (precipitation) to 2.6 billion cubicmeter of supplied water per year (i.e. by a factor of more than 60), only a portion of this water will reach the atmosphere as plants draw it from subsurface irrigation and evaporate it, but this evaporation volume alone and its potential influence on precipitation events can significantly affect local climate.

Within the framework of a feasibility study, however, it must be simulated in detail and examined in advance whether the local climate will become more pleasant and cooler in the long term or whether, due to the extreme greening, the local weather will potentially take on a tropical character - which would be considerably less pleasant than the dry desert climate.

In this context, it must also be clarified or simulated whether increased cloud formation over Dubai would benefit the city and pour down rain in the region or whether a mountain would actually have to be built for this purpose. The UAE's National Center for Atmospheric Research has already developed models with which such simulations are possible.

The advantage of the green belt concept is that the areas are created successively and climatic effects can be observed, so that countermeasures can be taken with the planting - and thus with the required irrigation.

The 400 km long Dubai Energy Bands can initially support the cement production for the bridge construction with 5.1 TWh p.a. and then - after completion of the bridges - supply the desalination plant (built in parallel)

Energy Bands have the great advantage that large amounts of green energy can be generated very quickly and very easily. However, like many renewable energies, they also have the disadvantage that the energy is volatile: they only produce electricity during the day, and more in summer than in winter.

The United Arab Emirates has a stated goal of capturing 25 percent of the global hydrogen market. As soon as the Energy Bands produce surplus energy, an infrastructure for the production of hydrogen should already be under construction in the Emirates. The UAE also wants to become a global player in the hydrogen-based production of steel, so that - together with low-CO2 cement production - Dubai‘s Innovation Bridges can be built with exemplary low CO2 emissions. However, hydrogen can only be compressed efficiently to a certain extent, so it is important to have plenty of space for its (intermediate) storage. At the same time, however, the installation should be close to the hydrogen-consuming industry or the exporting port: Accordingly, it makes sense to install the hydrogen storage in the underground under the green belt of Dubai - especially since the water-impermeable layer must come after a few meters of root space under this area, anyway.

Conclusion: With the help of green innovation bridges, Dubai can complement its spectacular high-rise skyline with fascinating buildings and paradisiacal gardens. For every existing investor in Dubai, the construction of the bridges will significantly increase the value of their existing real estate investments

If Dubai wants to remain a magnet for tourists and expatriates, then it is important to develop its current urban struct with forward-thinking planning. The Dubai bridges do not change the cityscape of Dubai, they only add value to it as they are located over currently dead areas: Even today, the wide motor roads contribute nothing to the life of the city, so if anything, they are a negative component of the cityscape.

The Dubai bridges will create a new quality of life, which will not only make the real estate on the bridges attractive, but also massively upgrade the immediate and wider surroundings of the bridges: The 30,000,000 square meters of building space on the bridges alone could fetch a price of at least 7,500 euros/m2 as of today, meaning they would be worth at least 225 billion euros. If only the same number of square meters of building space in the vicinity of the bridges were to increase from the current market price of 3,400 euros/m2 to 5,200 euros/m2, this increase in value is estimated at a further 54 billion euros - together with an extremely increased influx of tourists with additional revenues of several billion (38 billion in 2019), a further 20 billion euros in value should be created. In total, Dubai bridges can create a value of 300 billion euros.

Added to this is the sustainability value that will be created: With the Innovation Bridges, Dubai has a research platform for different future areas: from climate-adapted planting to autonomous driving to using geothermal energy from the pillar piles for cooling. It can also create a green belt with the help of a new, easy-to-build Energy Bands infrastructure, the effects of which could have a very positive climate-engineering effect on the city alongside agricultural supplies.

With its fabulously built paradisiacal green Innovation Bridges, Dubai can make a very special contribution to the world of the future.