Reclamation

Reclamation is the creation of new land from the sea or other water bodies, the technique behind port expansions, airports, and city waterfronts in space-constrained coastal cities. Fill is won by dredging and placed behind a containment bund, then surcharged and drained with vertical wick drains to accelerate consolidation before construction. Singapore, Hong Kong, and the Maasvlakte 2 extension at Rotterdam are large examples. Settlement control, fill liquefaction risk, and environmental effects on hydrodynamics drive the engineering.