Coastal development, tourism and land reclamation

Urbanisation and tourism

Rapid coastal urbanisation and tourism cause:

• Direct loss of ecosystems: dunes flattened for hotels, mangroves cleared for ports, marshes drained for housing.
• Degradation of the wider coastal zone: urban sewage, industrial pollution, run-off and litter; sand mining for construction.
• Loss of local identity: traditional fishing villages and culture replaced by resorts and second homes; rising land prices push local people out.

Benefits include jobs, foreign exchange, infrastructure and tax income. The balance of costs and benefits depends on who you are: developers and governments often gain, while fishers and poorer residents may lose.

Land reclamation: Hong Kong and Singapore

Land reclamation creates new land from the sea by infilling with sand, rock or waste, or by empoldering (enclosing an area with a sea wall and pumping it dry).

• Hong Kong: about 6,954 ha had been reclaimed by 2016, about 7% of its land area. Six new towns were built on reclaimed land (Tsuen Wan, Sha Tin, Tuen Mun, Tai Po, Tseung Kwan O and Tung Chung), and the Chek Lap Kok airport platform was reclaimed (CEDD information sheet). Since 1997 the Protection of the Harbour Ordinance has restricted reclamation in Victoria Harbour.
• Singapore: land area grew from 581.5 km2 in 1960 to 725.7 km2 in 2019, with a target of 766 km2 by 2030 (SG101). A 2019 UN Environment Programme report estimated Singapore had imported 517 million tonnes of sand; Indonesia (2007), Malaysia (2018) and Cambodia have banned sand exports to it, citing environmental damage. Singapore is now empoldering at Pulau Tekong, a method expected to cut sand volume and cost by about 40%.

Costs and benefits of reclamation and artificial islands

Benefits: land for housing, airports, ports and industry in crowded cities; high land values repay the cost; tourism (artificial islands such as those in Dubai); defence against flooding in the Netherlands.

Costs: very high construction and maintenance costs (reclaimed land can sink and need upkeep); loss of habitats and fisheries (the June 2024 mark scheme mentioned disrupted fish migration in the South China Sea); dredging stirs up sediment and pollution; sand extraction harms the exporting countries' coasts and rivers; new land is often low-lying and exposed to sea-level rise.

The June 2024 examiners' report said the best answers to an 8-mark question on this weighed which costs or benefits outweighed the others and used detailed case-study examples.

Worked example

Calculate the percentage increase in Singapore's land area from 1960 to 2019.

1. Increase = 725.7 - 581.5 = 144.2 km2.
2. Percentage increase = 144.2 / 581.5 x 100 = 24.8%.

Answer: About 24.8%: roughly a quarter more land.

Check yourself

1. How many more km2 does Singapore plan to have in 2030 (766 km2) than in 2019 (725.7 km2)? Give your answer to 1 decimal place.
   Show answer

   40.3 km2. 766 - 725.7 = 40.3 km2.

2. Hong Kong had reclaimed about 6,954 ha by 2016. Convert this to km2 (100 ha = 1 km2). Give your answer to 2 decimal places.
   Show answer

   69.54 km2. 6,954 / 100 = 69.54 km2.

3. Empoldering means
   • dumping sand on a beach
   • enclosing an area of sea with a wall and pumping it dry
   • planting mangroves
   • building groynes
   Show answer

   enclosing an area of sea with a wall and pumping it dry. It needs less sand than infilling.

4. Which is an example of loss of local identity caused by coastal tourism?
   • A rise in foreign exchange earnings
   • A new airport
   • A fishing village replaced by resort hotels and second homes
   • Better roads
   Show answer

   A fishing village replaced by resort hotels and second homes. Traditional culture and community are displaced.

5. Why did several countries ban sand exports to Singapore?
   • Environmental damage to their own coasts and rivers
   • Singapore stopped needing sand
   • Sand prices fell to zero
   • International law bans all sand trade
   Show answer

   Environmental damage to their own coasts and rivers. Exporting countries cited environmental concerns (SG101).

6. Explain one environmental cost of building an artificial island.
   Show answer

   Dredging and dumping sand buries the sea bed and stirs up sediment, which destroys habitats such as coral and seagrass and harms fish and their migration routes.. Activity, what it affects, the damage.

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Sources

• Pearson Edexcel International Advanced Subsidiary/Advanced Level in Geography specification, Issue 3 (September 2025)
• Hong Kong Civil Engineering and Development Department: Information sheet 3, reclamation
• Singapore Government SG101: Sand and land reclamation case study
• Pearson WGE02/01 mark scheme, June 2024
• Pearson WGE02/01 examiners' report, June 2024

Last updated 8 November 2026. Spotted a mistake? Tell us.