How Much Sea Does a Land Require?
Imagine the mighty ocean. Home to coral reefs and fishes of all kinds. It runs so deep, parts of it do not even get to see daylight. Pressures so high it could crush a human into a blob of flesh. Now that I have this extreme graphic in your head. I have one question for you.
Can man ‘convert’ sea into land?
Having the opportunity to step and stay on a ‘reclaimed’ land courtesy of a fun recent Singapore trip, I wondered what it took to create new land from the ocean. How on earth are tall buildings standing strong on a land built in a place where there was water? To imagine the work it took and its magnitude literally took my breath away for a minute.
Let’s dive into a little bit of history before we learn the engineering aspects of land reclamation. Land reclamation is creating new land from ocean, river or lake beds. It is mainly done to expand for business in coastal areas.
In the special case of Singapore, land reclamation goes back to almost 200 years. In the year 1822, Sir Stamford Raffles (an English colonial administrator) ordered Singapore’s first land reclamation project. Being a visionary, he saw a lot of opportunity for the overall growth of Singapore in expanding the land further into the sea. The helicopter shots of the iconic Marina Bay Sands you see is on reclaimed land.
It’s fairly easy to understand reclamation. Filling the sea with materials such as sand, rock, cement, clay, dirt until the desired height. This process is called ‘infilling’ and the material is referred to as infill. The soil is consolidated with pressure and voila- new land for any purpose imaginable. Of course, this process involves intensive pre-construction processes like environmental assessment, understanding the geology, feasibility studies and so much more. A little detail into its history and process is covered in the website below:
What’s fascinating is that reclaimed land makes up 22 percent of Singapore! This makes Singapore the largest importer of sand. You must be wondering how does land made like that sustain over time. There is no saying. The picturesque Palm Jumeirah is sinking but Singapore is managing quite nicely. It’s safe to say exploring land reclamation in earthquake prone areas is a recipe for disaster. A process called liquefaction, where supposed solid materials liquefy under prolonged force.
To summarize, land reclamation is fascinating but it has its downsides. Being human, experimentation to further our understanding has always been there since the advent of science. We would not know better about the moon if we were scared to explore it and so we try and find sustainable eco-friendly methods to sprawl our urban areas. Kudos to engineering is the theme, once again !
That ends our article today. To learn about yet another smart land reclamation, here’s a link to the Hong Kong International Airport Master Plan 2030.