land reclamation land reclamation land reclamation, usually known as reclamation, and also known as land fill (not to be confused with a waste landfill), is the process of creating new land from oceans, seas, riverbeds or lake beds. the land reclaimed is known as reclamation ground or land fill. this article is about land reclaimed from ocean, riverbeds, or lake beds. for land reclaimed from the desert, see dedesertification. for the disposal of waste material, see landfill. reclaiming in mounts bay, perth, australia 1964 the former airport of hong kong (pictured) and the current airport of hong kong were built on reclaimed land. the largest city square in the world, the xinghai square of dalian, china, was created entirely through land reclamation. in some jurisdictions, including parts of the united states, the term "reclamation" can refer to returning disturbed lands to an improved state. in alberta, canada, for example, reclamation is defined by the provincial government as "the process of reconverting disturbed land to its former or other productive uses." in oceania, it is frequently referred to as land rehabilitation. history one of the earliest large-scale projects was the beemster polder in the netherlands, realized in 1612 adding 70 square kilometres (27 sq mi) of land. in hong kong the praya reclamation scheme added 20 to 24 hectares (50 to 60 acres) of land in 1890 during the second phase of construction. it was one of the most ambitious projects ever taken during the colonial hong kong era. some 20% of land in the tokyo bay area has been reclaimed, most notably odaiba artificial island. le portier, monaco and gibraltar are also expanding due to land reclamation. the city of rio de janeiro was largely built on reclaimed land, as was wellington, new zealand. methods land reclamation can be achieved by a number of different methods. the simplest method involves filling the area with large amounts of heavy rock and/or cement, then filling with clay and dirt until the desired height is reached. the process is called "infilling" and the material used to fill the space is generally called "infill". draining of submerged wetlands is often used to reclaim land for agricultural use. deep cement mixing is used typically in situations in which the material displaced by either dredging or draining may be contaminated and hence needs to be contained. land dredging is also another method of land reclamation. it is the removal of sediments and debris from the bottom of a body of water. it is commonly used for maintaining reclaimed land masses as sedimentation, a natural process, fills channels and harbors. notable instances east coast park in singapore was built on reclaimed land with a man-made beach. the flevopolder in the netherlands, reclaimed from the ijsselmeer, is the largest reclaimed artificial island in the world. land reclamation in the beirut central district the whole district of fontvieille, monaco was reclaimed from the sea africa the foreshore in cape town the hassan ii mosque in morocco is built on reclaimed land. the eko atlantic in lagos, nigeria. gracefield island in lekki, lagos, nigeria. asia the whole 3 km2 business district of cebu south road properties in cebu city, philippines some of the coastline of saadiyat island, in the uae. used for commercial purposes. much of the coastline of mumbai, india. it took over 150 years to join the original seven islands of bombay. these seven islands were lush, green, thickly wooded, and dotted with 22 hills, with the arabian sea washing through them at high tide. the original isle of bombay was only 24 km long and 4 km wide from dongri to malabar hill (at its broadest point) and the other six were colaba, old woman's island, mahim, parel, worli and mazgaon. (