ABSTRACT
1.1 Historical context
Engineering, in some shape or form, has always been a central part of human activity. The construction of shelter from the elements, whether it be a single-storey shack or a flat in a high-rise tower block; the means for transporting goods and people by road, rail, ship and air; the provision of drinking water and hygienic drainage; all require careful design if they are to be effective and economically feasible. It may come as a surprise to realise that the coastline of many countries has long been as much engineered as natural. For example, the Port of A-ur was built on the Nile prior to 3000 BC. Nearby on the open coast, the Port of Pharos was constructed around 2000 BC, and had a massive breakwater which was over 2.5km long. The Romans developed the practice of pile driving for cofferdam foundations, a technique that was used for the construction of concrete sea walls. Much more recently, the Dutch reclaimed a large area of land from the sea in the form of polders. In the 1950s, a 70km long embankment was constructed through the sea, turning the South Sea or Zuiderzee into a lake now known as the Ijsselmeer. In the very recent past, our understanding of materials and physical processes has extended the concept of engineering to the design and construction of offshore archipelagos such as those in Dubai, as shown in Figure 1.1.
