Geography and the Anthropocene

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DOI :10.26650/B/SS19.2024.001.04   IUP :10.26650/B/SS19.2024.001.04    Full Text (PDF)

Anthropocene Coasts: A Review of Large-Scale Coastal Land Reclamation in East and Southeast Asia

Dhritiraj Sengupta, Michael E. Meadows

Coasts are dynamic, evolving environments, with anthropogenic change driven by (i) groynes, jetties and breakwaters interrupting long-shore drift, (ii) seawalls changing sediment patterns; and (iii) land reclamation. Most of the world’s sandy beaches have remained stable over the period 1984 – 2016. However, human modification of upstream catchments has resulted in the net seaward expansion of deltaic land masses due to deforestation-induced fluvial sediment supply over the past thirty years despite rising sea levels. Further coastal expansion is observed in regions where large-scale coastal reclamation projects have been undertaken; for example, the construction of international airports (e.g., Shanghai’s Pudong International Airport, China), residential/commercial zones (e.g., Lagos, Nigeria), and ports, as in Singapore. In total, since the mid-1980s, across 16 global megacities, more than 1,200 km2 of land has been reclaimed. This review paper provides an account of recent studies on large-scale coastal land reclamation and its impact in East and Southeast Asia, thereby highlighting key information on anthropogenic impact on the urbanized coast.


Keywords: Human impact, Stratigraphy, Climate Change, Sea-level Rise, Anthropogeomorphology

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