Everything about Land Reclamation totally explained
Land reclamation is either of two distinct practices. One involves creating new land from sea- or riverbeds, the other refers to restoring an area to a more natural state (such as after
pollution or
salination have made it unusable).
Creating new land
For habitation or agriculture
Land reclamation is the creation of new land where there was once water. Notable examples include parts of
New Orleans;
Washington, D.C. (which is partially built on land that was once
swamp);
Mexico City (which is situated at the former site of
Lake Texcoco);
Helsinki (of which the major part of the city center is built on reclaimed land); the
Cape Town foreshore; the
Chicago shoreline; the
Manila Bay shoreline;
Back Bay, Boston, Massachusetts;
Battery Park City,
Manhattan; the port of
Zeebrugge in
Belgium; the
polders of the
Netherlands; and the
Toronto Islands,
Leslie Street Spit, and the
waterfront in
Toronto.
Japan, the southern
Chinese cities of
Hong Kong and
Macau, and the
city-state of
Singapore, where land is in short supply, are also famous for their efforts on land reclamation. One of the earliest and famous project was the
Praya Reclamation Scheme, which added 50 to 60 acres of land in 1890 during the second phase of construction. It was one of the most ambitious projects ever taken during the
Colonial Hong Kong era. Some 20% of land in the
Tokyo Bay area has been reclaimed.
Monaco and the British territory of
Gibraltar are also expanding due to land reclamation. The city of
Rio de Janeiro was largely built on reclaimed land.
Artificial islands are an example of land reclamation. Creating an artificial island is an expensive and risky undertaking. It is often considered in places that are densely populated and flat land is scarce.
Kansai International Airport (in
Osaka) and
Hong Kong International Airport are examples where this process was deemed necessary. The
Palm Islands,
The World and hotel
Burj al-Arab off
Dubai in the
United Arab Emirates are other examples of artificial islands.
A related practice is the
draining of swampy or seasonally submerged
wetlands to convert them to
farmland. While this doesn't create new land exactly, it allows commercially productive use of land that would otherwise be restricted to
wildlife habitat. It is also an important method of
mosquito control.
For beach restoration
beaches using materials such as
sand or
mud from inland. This can be used to build up beaches suffering from
beach starvation or erosion from
longshore drift. It stops the movement of the original beach material through longshore drift and retains a natural look to the beach. Although it isn't a long-lasting solution, it's cheap compared to other types of
coastal defences.
Environmental impact
Draining wetlands for ploughing, for example, is a form of
habitat destruction. In some parts of the world, new reclamation projects are restricted or no longer allowed, due to
environmental protection laws.
Environmental legislation
Hong Kong legislators passed the
Protection of the Harbour Ordinance in 1996 in an effort to safeguard the increasingly threatened
Victoria Harbour against encroaching land development.
Land amounts added
- Netherlands -about 1/5 land from land reclamation or about 7.000km².
- Singapore - 20% of the original size or 135 km² as of 2003, plans for 99 km² more.
- Hong Kong - Praya Reclamation Scheme began in the late 1860s that consisted of two stage totaling 50 to 60+ acres. This figure understates the importance of the sites reclaimed: Hong Kong Disneyland, Hong Kong International Airport, and its predecessor, Kai Tak Airport, were all built on reclaimed land. In addition, much reclamation has taken place in prime locations on the waterfront on both sides of Victoria Harbour. This has raised environmental issues of the protection of the harbour which was once the source of prosperity of Hong Kong, traffic congestion in the Central district, as well as the collusion of the Hong Kong Government with the real estate developers in the territory.
» In addition, as city expands, new town in different decade mostly built on reclaimed land, such as
Tuen Mun,
Tai Po,
Shatin-
Ma On Shan,
West Kowloon,
Kwun Tong and
Tseung Kwan O.
Macau - 170% of the original size or 17 km² (External Link
)
Tokyo Bay, Japan - 249 km².
Kobe, Japan - 23 km² (1995).
Repairing damaged land
Land reclamation or Land rehabilitation is also the process of cleaning up a site that has sustained environmental degradation, such as strip mining. This can be done to allow for some form of human use (such as a housing development) or to restore that area back to its natural state as a wildlife habitat home.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Land Reclamation'.
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