The Republic of Maldives is considered one of the most vulnerable to global warming in the world. The fact is that 80 % of the territory of this island state is less than one meter above sea level. The highest point of the archipelago is only 2.4 meters. And this means that at the current rate of rise in sea level by the end of this century, most of the Maldives could go completely under water.
The Maldivian authorities are aware of this and are taking various measures to ensure the country’s future preservation. One of them is the creation of artificial islands. Presented images obtained by Landsat satellites demonstrate this process.
The first photo was taken in 1997, the second – in 2021. It is easy to see that during this time a whole new island has grown in the lagoon next to the airport. It is called Hulhumale. Its area is 4 km2, which makes it the fourth largest in the entire archipelago. Now on the territory of 50 thousand people, in the future authorities are planning to move here about 200 thousand residents, which will “relieve” the capital Male. By the way, its average height of 1 m, while the average height of Hulhumale – 2 m.
This is not the only project aimed at creating a new land. In the Landsat images you can see several more sites, the area of which has increased due to the efforts of engineers. Among such “completed” islands are Tilafushi and Galifolu.
