Posted by chinaman > 2018-09-02 19:56 | Report Abuse

The reality is that urban sprawl is no longer just a land-based problem,” she wrote in an article for The Conversation. “Developments are spreading out into the oceans, creating tangles of structures beneath the water’s surface.” This causes havoc for marine organisms and their habitats, destroying the coral reefs that nourish fisheries and protect the coastline from the harsher impact of the waves, and destablising many precious coastal ecosystems such as salt flats and mangroves.

Building on dredged sediments also has risks for inhabitants, as this strata isn’t as stable as hard bedrock on land. There have been reports that Dubai’s Palm Jumeirah archipelago is actually sinking. Reclaimed land is also a risk in earthquake-prone areas. The prolonged shaking can trigger a process called liquefaction, where the once-solid sediments of reclaimed areas can liquefy. This was a significant contributor to the devastation of the huge San Francisco earthquake of 1906.