On 8 October 2012, the Nicaraguan Government signed a memorandum
of understanding with a Chinese consortium for the construction
of a new canal, the Nicaragua Canal. The Nicaraguan
Congress approved the canal project on 24 June 2013, and its construction
is viewed as controversial. The head of the canal authority
announced on 4 January 2014 that the construction will likely
begin in 2015. The new canal will be an interoceanic waterway
connecting the Caribbean and Pacific coasts of Nicaragua (Fig. 1),
and the canal is expected to be operational by 2020. It is anticipated
that the construction of the Nicaragua Canal will face numerous
challenges, including political, economical, social, and
technological challenges. The present study presumes that the Nicaragua
Canal will become operational in the future, and does not
examine the feasibility of its construction.
This paper assesses the possible roles that the proposed Nicaragua
Canal may adopt by 2030, 10 years after the construction of