Island morphology, reef resources, and development paths in the Maldives:

摘要: Maldivian paths for economic development have historically been constrained by the morphology of atoll islands and availability material resources. These constraints are most evident when examining Male’, Maldives’ capital populous island. Before 1970s, Male’ was a rather typical island, consisting accumulated rubble sand with an underlying lagoonal reef (faro) structure. Rising population standard-of-living expectations in led to accelerated coral mining Male’s reefs 1970s 80s both landfill construction material, extending island’s land surface across lagoon flats, close edge its faro. This combination fill degraded natural defenses against wave events, resulting disastrous floods April 1987 fortification coastline seawalls shortly thereafter. The degree degradation amount investment urban bui...