Land Reclamation - Habitation

Habitation

The creation of new land was for the need of human activities.

Notable examples in the West include:

• Large parts of the Netherlands
• Large Parts of Rio de Janeiro, most notably several blocks in the new docks area, the entire Flamengo Park and the neighborhood of Urca
• Parts of Dublin, Ireland
• Parts of Saint Petersburg, Russia, such as the Marine Facade
• Parts of New Orleans (which is partially built on land that was once swamp)
• Much of the urbanized area adjacent to San Francisco Bay, including most of San Francisco's waterfront and Financial District, the Port of Oakland, and large portions of the city of Alameda has been reclaimed from the bay.
• Mexico City (which is situated at the former site of Lake Texcoco)
• Parts of Panama City urban and street development are based on reclaimed land, using material extracted from Panama Canal excavations.
• Helsinki (of which the major part of the city center is built on reclaimed land)
• The Cape Town foreshore
• The Chicago shoreline
• The Hassan II Mosque in Morocco is built on reclaimed land.
• Barceloneta quartier, Barcelona
• Back Bay, Boston, Massachusetts
• Battery Park City, Manhattan
• Liberty State Park, Jersey City
• The port of Zeebrugge in Belgium
• The southwestern residential area in Brest, Belarus
• The Toronto Islands, Leslie Street Spit, and the waterfront in Toronto
• Part of Nuns' Island and all of Île Notre-Dame in Montreal
• Most of Fontvieille, Monaco
• Parts surrounding Port Hercules in La Condamine, Monaco
• The Fens in Eastern England.

In the East:

• 25% of Hong Kong Island
• Haikou Bay, Hainan Province, China, where the west side of Haidian Island is being extended, and off the coast of Haikou City, where new land for a marina is being created
• Macau
• Nagoya Centrair Airport, Japan
• Incheon International Airport, Korea
• Beirut Central District, Lebanon
• The city of Mumbai, India
• The southern Chinese cities of Shenzhen
• The shore of Manila Bay in the Philippines, especially along Metro Manila, has attracted major developments such as the Mall of Asia Complex and the Cultural Centre of the Philippines Complex.
• 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 (20.2 to 24.3 ha) 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, most notably Odaiba artificial island. Le Portier, Monaco and Gibraltar are also expanding due to land reclamation. The city of Rio de Janeiro was largely built on reclaimed land, as was Wellington, New Zealand.

Artificial islands are an example of land reclamation. Creating an artificial island is an expensive and risky undertaking. It is often considered in places with high population density and a scarcity of flat land. 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, as well as the Flevopolder in the Netherlands which is the largest artificial island in the world.