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Category Archives: Islands

Eco-friendly solution to rising seas in St. Petersburg? Fake islands

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ST. PETERSBURG Consultants are proposing a big change of scenery for the downtown waterfront: islands.

Man-made, eco-friendly barrier islands made of organic materials like planted rock piles, sea grass or mangroves a living breakwater would protect the city against storm surges associated with higher sea levels.

They would also smooth out an often choppy basin, making for an easier ride for kayakers and small watercraft enthusiasts.

That was the pitch by AECOM, the global consultant hired to come up with a long-term waterfront plan, delivered at a meeting Friday to the City Council and the Community Planning and Preservation Commission.

"This is a big idea," said Pete Sechler, a consultant working for AECOM. "If you think about visitors coming. With a really unique environmental move like this? You think about what a draw this could be. I think it could be a really big deal."

New York City has embarked on a similar project in Staten Island, but not a lot of other such breakwaters have been built, potentially putting St. Petersburg on the cutting edge of environmentally creative solutions to rising seas, the consultants said.

Details, including how much it will cost, aren't available yet. On Friday, consultants showed a map of the waterfront with green squiggly blobs resembling caterpillars representing breakwaters and looking like tiny barrier islands.

The consultants wanted to get early feedback before developing the idea further. The public will get a look at the plan in a series of workshops at the end of the month.

Still, a general picture emerged Friday of a string of islands and other barriers along unprotected stretches of the waterfront made up of underwater breakwaters of sea grass, rock piles and other measures to dissipate wave energy far from shore.

"They won't all be 8-foot islands," Sechler said. "Some will be underwater, others barely at water level."

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Eco-friendly solution to rising seas in St. Petersburg? Fake islands

Japan approves record defence budget

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Japan's cabinet has approved the country's largest defence budget, with plans to buy surveillance aircraft and F-35 fighter jets to improve defences of disputed islands amid China's increasing assertiveness in the region.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's Cabinet endorsed on Wednesday a nearly $42b defence budget for the year beginning in April, a two percent rise. The budget must still be approved by parliament, but Abe's coalition holds majorities in both houses.

The military outlays were included in a record $814b total budget for the coming fiscal year.

Japan's military budget is rising for a third year in a row under Abe, who took office in December 2012 and ended 11 straight years of defence budget cuts.

The increase mainly covers new equipment, including P-1 surveillance aircraft, F-35 fighter jets and amphibious vehicles for a new unit to boost island defences.

The 2015 budget also covers cost of purchasing parts of "Global Hawk" drones, planned for deployment in 2019, and two Aegis radar-equipped destroyers, as well as missile defence system development with Washington.

Chinese patrol boats often visit waters near uninhabited islands in the East China Sea, which are controlled by Japan but also claimed by China.

Abe favours a stronger role for Japan's military, despite a commitment to pacifism enshrined in the US-inspired constitution drawn up after the country's defeat in World War Two.

Japan's defence guidelines were revised in December 2013 as tensions rose over the disputed islands in the East China Sea.

In July, the Abe government adopted a new interpretation of Japan's war-renouncing constitution to allow its military to defend American and other foreign troops under attack.

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Japan approves record defence budget

Aitutaki, Cook Islands: Is this the world's most beautiful lagoon?

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Nigel Tisdall Jan 12 2015 at 4:45 PM

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The Cook Islands more than live up to the South Pacific dream. No wonder Captain Bligh's men took the mutinous decision to stay.

On April 11 1789, His Majesty's ship Bounty came across a supremely beautiful triangle of white sands and coconut palms lost in the vast blue counterpane of the South Pacific. Its commander, Lt William Bligh, was the first European to set eyes on Wytootackee, as he called it - although, in fact, it is not at all tacky. The journal of his voyage, now available online, gives no indication that he had reached what is today billed, with much justification, as "the world's most beautiful lagoon". Sixteen days later, perhaps understandably, his crew mutinied.

Now known as Aitutaki, this epitome of the South Seas idyll has become a chief reason to visit the Cook Islands. Lying west of Tahiti, this once-British constellation of 15 volcanic islands and coral atolls is sprinkled across an oceanic territory the size of Greenland. Its gateway, Rarotonga, seems ridiculously remote, yet dropping into this balmy world is a surprisingly easy affair thanks to an umbilical, once-a-week flight from Los Angeles with Air New Zealand.

Cook Islanders have strong links with the Land of the Long White Cloud. They use the New Zealand dollar and drive on the left, and share a mutual appreciation of Polynesian culture, rugby and custard squares. The weather is hot, the frangipani in bloom and the mangoes ripe.

Kicking back is what it's all about on Aitutaki, which instils mellowness like commuters get stress. A 45-minute flight north of Rarotonga, its tiny airport is delightfully laid-back, with chickens strutting past the check-in counters and tattooed men as big as fridge-freezers proffering garlands of heavenly scented flowers. The island rises no higher than 400ft and you can drive around it in 15 minutes. There's nothing to see - although you could try to spot one of its three policemen.

Except, of course, for that bewitching lagoon. Its shimmering layers of blue and green deliver complete bucket-list satisfaction - providing the sun's out. A favourite way to savour this moment is from a hammock strung between two palms at the Aitutaki Lagoon Resort, the only upmarket hotel that looks on to its dreamy waters. Another is to take one of the many cruises that explore its magical motus (islets).

Some vessels are large and loud, so I opt for a snorkelling safari aboard the small and simple Teking, which takes up to 12 passengers. We make three stops to plunge into the warm water to admire dazzlingly dressed fish and purple table corals as big as bandstands. Lunch is served on a desert island, a feast of yellowfin tuna, okra salad and fried plantain laid out in giant clam shells. All goes well until we near One Foot Island, where you can get a souvenir stamp in your passport, and the boat breaks down. There don't appear to be any life-jackets and we've run out of water. There is beer, though, and someone wryly observes that Aitutaki is where they filmed the reality shows Shipwrecked and Survivor.

By comparison, life on Rarotonga feels almost hectic. The hub of the Cook Islands is dominated by a rainforest-cloaked volcanic core rising to 614 metres, with a sleepy coastal road uniting its low-key beaches and reefs. You can drive the full circle in 45 minutes, or there are public buses with signs that simply say "Clockwise" or "Anti-Clockwise".

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Aitutaki, Cook Islands: Is this the world's most beautiful lagoon?

River Islands: 400 homes on 2014?

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River Islands at Lathrop is on pace to build nearly 400 homes this year.

Thirty families have moved into new homes as if the end of 2014 as the first residents of the planned community of 10,800 homes.

Three builders sold 86 homes and have started building 200 homes as 2014 drew to a close. Building started in earnest in August.

Cambay Group in July projected 90 homes would be built or started in 2013 with 250 homes breaking ground in 2015. Then in 2016 the target is for 500 homes with production expected to continue at that level in subsequent years.

If the pace continues, home building will exceed earlier projections.

The interest is incredible, Cambay Project Manager Susan DellOsso said in reference to traffic at model homes and the visitors center.

That means River Islands by itself could eclipse Manteca as the fastest growing city in San Joaquin County when it comes to new homes being built. Manteca has been leading the county with an average of 300 housing units a year since 2008. There are a lot of draws for the 4,800-acre planned community. They include:

Universal river access via a linear park along the edge of 14 miles of San Joaquin River and delta habitat. Thats in addition to 400 acres of lakes within River Islands.

A park of some type within a quarter of a mile of every home in River Islands. The first interior park being built will have soccer fields, extensive tree plantings and a wide expanse of steps leading down to the waters edge of a lake. It is being named Michael Vega Park in honor of the first Lathrop resident killed in the Global War on Terror.

Service by an independent district that will provide electricity at rates ultimately 25 percent below what PG&E charges.

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River Islands: 400 homes on 2014?


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