Cities Are Rapidly Reclaiming Land at Risk of Extreme Sea Level Rise – Hakai

The World Islands from the air in construction (by Carlos Bustamante Restrepo CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 via Flickr).

As the sea rises and the population booms, builders around the world are in a race to transform coastal bays and shallow seas into new land. Yet don’t mistake this rush of land reclamation as a response to the challenges we face. “It’s built for rich people,” explains Dhritiraj Sengupta, a physical geographer at England’s University of Southampton. Sengupta’s latest research shows there’s been a huge increase in the use of reclaimed land for luxury hotels, shopping areas, and high-end living spaces—developments designed to boost a city’s global reputation…

New Land Creation on Waterfronts Increasing, Study Finds – AGU

Satellite view comparison of Hangzhou Bay, 40 miles from downtown Shanghai in 2016 (left) and 2019 (courtesy NASA Earth Observatory, by Joshua Stevens using Landsat data from the US Geological Survey).

Humans have added approximately 900 square miles of land to urban coastlines this century, and we’re building more…

Humans are artificially expanding cities’ coastlines by extending industrial ports and creating luxury residential waterfronts. Developers have added over 2,530 square kilometers of land (900 square miles, or about 40 Manhattans) to coastlines in major cities since 2000, according to a new study…

How and why China is building islands in the South China Sea

China has been building manmade bases over some of the Spratly Islands in the South China Sea since 2014, specifically targeting shallower areas, sandbanks, and reefs—islands, the shallower the better; a place that won’t sink under a load of concrete.