Advantages And Disadvantages of Land reclamation

Land reclamation will definitely increase land area for a certain country. With more land, more buildings and infrastructure can be built, and also for other reasons. In Singapore, land reclamation is intense, and reclaimed land is everywhere. It is used to build Marina Bay, which is the location of Integrated Resorts, financial centers and the Singapore Flyer, a ferris wheel.
The world-famous Changi Airport is also built on reclaimed land. One of the seaports is also located on reclaimed land. The entire "East Coast Park", which consists of a park, a man-made beach and housing, is also situated on Singapore's largest scale reclaimed land. Reclaimed land is also present on neighboring islands for housing, industry and many more purposes.
Netherlands has also reclaimed a lot of land to prevent flooding. Netherlands is actually situated below water level, thus prone to flooding. These lands are called polders, where the land is also below water level. Almost 20% of its land is reclaimed land! As the saying goes, "God has created the world, but the Dutch created Netherlands".
Dubai reclaims both land and artificial islands. Examples are the Palm Islands, The World, The Universe and the island which Burj al-Arab is situated on. The Palm Islands are for beauty, as well as housing. The Palm Islands can be seen for space, and is definitely a spectacular view. The Palm Deira will be the largest man-made island when completed. This has definitely increased Dubai's land area, as well as its coastal perimeter. The Dubai Waterfront, situated beside Palm Jebel Ali, will be the largest waterfront and largest man-made development in the world.
Artificial islands, as mentioned before, are also part of land reclamation. The Kansai International Airport in Osaka, Japan, and the Hong Kong International Airport are built on artificial islands off the coast of the main country. Artificial islands cost a bomb to build, and are very risky.
Of course, there are also many other examples, such as the Tokyo Bay area and Rio de Janeiro.
However, as there are advantages, there are also disadvantages too. Land reclamation can be damaging to corals and marine life. Corals are usually moved to another place when land is to be reclaimed. The corals might not be able to survive in that certain habitat, and thus die out. In some countries, where the project is large-scale, they do not even bother to re-plant the corals elsewhere, instead just reclaim the land on their habitat, causing them to die out immediately. Marine life, such as fishes, might not have enough food after the underwater plantations are destroyed due to reclamation of land. This applies to the food chain. The waters might also be polluted from the soil used to reclaim land, causing the fishes to die and blocking out sunlight, depriving the underwater plants of growth. Marine habitats are also destroyed, as mentioned earlier; therefore, the marine creatures would be forced to move to another new habitat. Some might not be able to adapt, and thus die out. Some would just die without even finding a new habitat, as they cannot move long distances in water. Of course, the reasons and examples look tempting to us humans, but marine life is life too! We should try to protect is as much as possible, instead of just focusing on the advantages.