Land Reclamation

This report summarises the status of coral reefs in the ROPME Sea Area which includes Bahrain, Iran, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates (UAE); there are no coral reefs in Iraq. The region can be split into three parts according to the local marine climate, which strongly influences the nature of the coral communities: the Persian/Arabian Gulf

Findings from the Yellowhead Institute’s Land Back report highlight the pattern and impacts of settler colonial land theft: “If Indigenous legal traditions are not recognized to have standing in decision-making on resource management, the result is alienation; a non-consensual land theft that structures much of Indigenous-state relations into the present.” This article looks at some of the ways that the “land back” movement creates new spaces for community resurgence. Additionally, I examine how land back relates more specifically to Cherokee values and practices.

This report summarises the status of coral reefs in the ROPME Sea Area which includes Bahrain, Iran, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates (UAE); there are no coral reefs in Iraq. The region can be split into three parts according to the local marine climate, which strongly influences the nature of the coral communities: the Persian/Arabian Gulf

In this paper, I will present some of the results of my ongoing PhD research, which aims to reconstruct how the alluvial plain around Ravenna was shaped by both natural and anthropic factors during the last few millennia. Indeed, since at least the Roman period, a long but intermittent process of reclamation was started in the area, driven by a continuously growing demand for farmable and “healthy” land, which caused the almost completely disappearance of the many marshlands, lagoons and woodlands that used to cover large parts of the landscape and that still represented an important resources for the communities living in the area before their disappearance.
How this reclamation process took place in the last few centuries is fairly well known, but to be able to investigate more ancient periods for which historical cartography is not available, I am combining various data: existing aerial and satellite images have been used to identify old palaeochannels and other traces of fluvial activities; geological and pedological data from the regional dataset, archaeological grey literature and targeted geoarchaeological investigations to gain more information about the deposits that lay beneath the present ground level; archaeological data to evaluate the changes in the settlement patterns.
Modelling all these data together has allowed mapping several areas of the landscape that even in historical times have experienced the formation of marshlands, but which have left little or no evidence of their existence before they were reclaimed. Combining these models with the archaeological and historical evidence has allowed to gain crucial information on how medieval societies have gained an advantage from fluvial changes, in some cases inducing themselves the discharge of sediments in order to “conquer” new arable land.

Fascism, reclamation and colonization in South Tyrol (1920s) The essay describes the land reclamation and colonization plans elaborated in the 1920s by Fascism as a tool for the Italianization of South Tyrol. These plans, conceived by nationalist and post-irredentist circles, were not actually implemented. This failure can be explained by the regime's need not to compromise international relations with Germany and Austria, by the ability of the South Tyrolean landowners to mobilize against the expropriation plans, and by the existence in Italian institutions of different positions on the best way to nationalize South Tyrol.

Surface coal mining in Appalachia has caused extensive replacement of forest with non-forested land cover, much of which is unmanaged and unproductive. Although forested ecosystems are valued by society for both marketable products and ecosystem services, forests have not been restored on most Appalachian mined lands because traditional reclamation practices, encouraged by regulatory policies, created conditions poorly suited for reforestation. Reclamation scientists have studied productive forests growing on older mine sites, established forest vegetation experimentally on recent mines, and identified mine reclamation practices that encourage forest vegetation re-establishment. Based on these findings, they developed a Forestry Reclamation Approach (FRA) that can be employed by coal mining firms to restore forest vegetation. Scientists and mine regulators, working collaboratively, have communicated the FRA to the coal industry and to regulatory enforcement personnel. Today, the FRA is used routinely by many coal mining firms, and thousands of mined hectares have been reclaimed to restore productive mine soils and planted with native forest trees. Reclamation of coal mines using the FRA is expected to restore these lands' capabilities to provide forest-based ecosystem services, such as wood production, atmospheric carbon sequestration, wildlife habitat, watershed protection, and water quality protection to a greater extent than conventional reclamation practices.

Imagine a field with hundreds of pyramids the size of the greatest ones built in ancient Egypt. That is the volume of the land reclamations in the port of Kobe. This paper is recapitulating the postwar development of this port city once aiming at becoming Asia's mother port. It is offering a brief exploration of the infrastructural development with its land reclamations in deep water and redevelopment of Kobes waterfront (1). Coming and going at large, that are waves but more precisely a changing relationship of the city and its port deeply affected by the mechanics of global logistics (2). Finally this issue of Xontext Industry Reports is touching upon the effects and subsequent recovery from the Great Hanshin Earthquake of 1995 (3).

Land reclamation of derelict landscapes, until in recent times, was a rare experience, especially in developing countries. This has however changed with the adoption of environmental policies and legislative frameworks in most countries in the world. This drive was mainly inspired by the conservation strategies developed and promoted by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN). This article is a presentation of the findings and observations that led to successful land reclamation by the cement factory. Steps taken for this reclamation effort were of prime interest to the author and were retraced resulting in this position paper. A comparative approach is used, given the conventional methods that most projects of this nature employ. Most of the environmental and land degradation are caused by profit motivated industries who do nothing or very little to repair the damage caused in the course of their work. The Haller Park at the Bamburi cemen...

A cover crop is a plant that is grown (in large quantities) for preventing soil erotion of the lands such as the ones laid bare after mining. The cover crop currently used are commonly Centrosema pubescens, Calopogonium mucunoides, Pueraria javanica and Mucuna sp. these plants whose characteristics are climbing and twisting may affect the growth of other plants in their surroundings. Therefore it is necessary to find alternative cover crops which will not affect such other plants. The purpose of this research is to obtain information about the best ratio of soil and compost medium in multiplying D. heterophyllum through a graft method and also information about the growth of D. heterophyllum in the land that was once a silicate mine. The 1:2 ratio of soil and compost is clearly the best media as it has produced growth in length of main stem which is 15.4 cm under observation for 4 weeks. The Duncan analysis indicates that the proportion of such factors as cultivating hole, loosening of the soil and the use of compost has caused the most significant effect on the growth of the average length of main stem of D. heterophyllum cultivated in the land that was once a silicate mine.
Keyword: compost, cultivating hole, D. heterophyllum, graft

Beginning during the colonial period, and greatly accelerating following independence in 1965, Singapore has used land reclamation to increase its national domain by nearly 25 per cent. The construction of new land was a key component of the nation’s celebrated rise from ‘third world’ to ‘first world’ in the postcolonial period. But the economic benefits of remaking Singapore’s coastline came at significant ecological and social costs. Nearly all of the original shore, and its attendant mangrove forests and natural beaches, were lost. So too were two-thirds of Singapore’s coral reefs. While carrying out this reclamation, the state also erased a number of sites at which people made a living from the sea, including indigenous communities on the outer islands, age-old fishing villages, kelongs (large, traditional offshore fishing platforms) and prawn farms.

The history of land construction in Singapore offers a number of important insights concerning the relationship between humans and our environments. First, it reveals how the tensions between an ideal situation (a city or state’s relationship to other places) and a less than optimum site (its physical environment), when combined with a forceful, proactive government, can bring about immense environmental transformations. Related to that, this case sheds light on the ways in which governments – especially in developing nations – can use transformation of terrestrial and marine environments, in the name of progress, as a means of expanding and legitimating their authority. This history also reveals a perhaps unforeseen consequence of bulldozing and burying sites at which humans derived their livelihood from living oceanic resources: the loss of a cultural connection to the sea, based on knowing nature through work. Finally, this history raises the question of how environmental advocates can pursue conservation in a setting like Singapore’s shores, which we can no longer consider pristine or natural. That is to say, the ongoing efforts of environmentalists to protect flora and fauna in Singapore’s waters speak to the necessity of, and challenges presented by, preserving hybrid (neither entirely natural nor entirely artificial) marine environments.

This thesis investigates the reclamation of mires (fens and bogs) in Sweden
with a focus on the early modern period. Today, the mires are valued natural
habitats and their cultivation is controversial. International research describes
wetland reclamation and the related knowledge transfer between
European countries already from the 12th century. In Sweden, despite some
early records of reclamation of mires in the 17th century, has earlier research
focused on reclamation during the 19th and 20th centuries. The aim of the
thesis is to study the landscape, actors and driving forces behind the early
reclamation (before 1800). Understanding the early reclamation can provide
a new perspective on current views on wetlands. It is also an interesting example
of how the landscape is changed constantly by people with different
goals through history. The subject is studied through a multimethod approach
using sources such as historical maps, diaries, 17th- and 18th-century
literature and place names. The main conclusions of the study are that reclamation
of mires is seen already in 17th-century maps, with local wider distribution
during the 18th century. The crown and scientists expressed a
growing interest in reclamation of the mires from the early 18th century.
Links to Europe, in particular Holland, can be seen within this discourse. In
both literature and the experimentation that took place, the Swedish migrant
group, the Dalecarlians, played a key role. They shared with the early Dutch
groups the practical knowledge needed in major reclamation projects. Furthermore,
this study shows that a number of actors assumed at various times
the role of mobile innovation spreaders. Dutch farmers and experts, labour
migrants, landlords and scientists all acted to spread knowledge of mire reclamation.
Ample resources, networking and geographical mobility appear to
have been prerequisites for all actors, from peasants to landlords, but they
had different underlying motives for the practice.

The UK has a long history of quarrying and many disused sites were simply abandoned. Increased population pressure and awareness of environmental issues has resulted in two main changes: quarries can be valuable assets for redevelopment, and those not redeveloped are rehabilitated to become part of the landscape once again. This paper outlines some of the after uses for quarries in the UK including large multi-use projects such as combined new townships and flood prevention schemes. Landfilling has long been carried out in former quarries, originally in an uncontrolled manner but latterly with regard to environmental protection using engineered containment systems. A summary of the methods used to line steep quarry slopes is presented. Although such methods have been in use for more that 10 years, many are still considered novel because there is little research data on aspects such as liner strain leading to reduced effectiveness. The various factors involved in determining any site as suitable for landfilling are well known. Former quarry sites have additional factors relating to the design and serviceability of the lining system on steep slopes. A consideration of all factors is necessary and where several potential site options are available, the use of software screening tools is advocated. QRisk is a geotechnical risk assessment tool for safety and financial risks resulting from slope instability. The use of GIS is a powerful tool for managing spatial data and building target plans based on weighting of various factors affecting sensitivity of receptors such as groundwater.

Die weltweiten Migrationsströme haben die politischen und gesellschaftlichen Diskussionen zum Thema „Heimat“ intensiviert. Heimat – verstanden als Zugehörigkeit zu einem geographischen Ort, einer Sprache, einem Volk, einer Gruppe, einer Familie, einer sozialen Schicht – führt in den Debatten im Kontext der Migration zur Frage nach Identität, Integration und Verortung der Heimat. Diese Verbindung von Heimat mit Migration, Identität und sozialer Integration bzw. Inklusion hat sie im Zeitalter von Globalisierung und Kosmopolitismus nicht nur zu einem allgegenwärtigen Thema gemacht, sondern ihr auch ein breites Forschungsfeld eröffnet.
Heimat neu zu denken, ist schon ein Schritt im Kampf gegen die Xenophobie und andere Diskriminierungen. So kann der Fremde in der Fremde Heimat finden. Diese gesellschaftliche Toleranz beziehungsweise Akzeptanz von Fremde und Fremdheit soll zur gesellschaftlichen Entwicklung beitragen.

The discovery of a 12th century chair during excavations of an old farm plus adjoining dike in a small polder near Rotterdam opens up new insights into the role of large monasteries during the era of the  reclamation and shaping of large feudal estates in Holland (period of the 10th to the 13th century).

La découverte d'une chaise du XIIème siècle lors des fouilles d'une ancienne ferme et d'une digue attenante dans un petit polder près de Rotterdam ouvre de nouvelles perspectives sur le rôle des grands monastères à l'époque de la remise en état et de la mise en forme de grands domaines féodaux en Hollande (période du Xe au XIIIe siècle).

Die Entdeckung eines Stuhls aus dem 12. Jahrhundert bei Ausgrabungen eines alten Bauernhofs und eines angrenzenden Deichs in einem kleinen Polder in der Nähe von Rotterdam eröffnet neue Einblicke in die Rolle großer Klöster in der Zeit der Rückgewinnung und Gestaltung großer feudaler Güter in Holland (Zeit der 10. bis 13. Jahrhundert).

In this era of climate crisis, sustainability is a global imperative. Yet we tend to associate sustainability, nature, and the environment with distant places, science, and policy. The truth is that everything is environmental, from transportation to taxes, work to love, cities to cuisine.

This book is the first to examine contemporary Singapore from an ecocultural lens, looking at the ways that Singaporean life and culture is deeply entangled with the nonhuman lives that flourish all around us. The authors represent a new generation of cultural critics and environmental thinkers, who will inherit the future we are creating today. From chilli crab to Tiger Beer, Changi Airport to Pulau Semakau, O-levels to orang minyak films, these essays offer fresh perspectives on familiar subjects, prompting us to recognise the incredible urgency of climate change and the need to transform our ways of thinking, acting, learning, living, and governing so as to maintain a stable planet and a decent future.

In this paper I show that decline in tax revenue from Early Medieval Iraq was mainly due to the fall in soil output. I demonstrate that the fall in soil output, political administration, land tenure and the methods of tax assessment were deeply interrelated. I  explain how land tenure, tax administration and political and social structure contributed to the decline in agricultural output, especially in food crops, and why the decline in tax revenue was an important indicator of this economic crisis. In particular, I focus on the incentives and disincentives related to tax collection and administration and, in general, the role of the State in agricultural activity. Taxation was just another form of surplus extraction and reflected the relative power of different social and political groups.

Mycorrhizal fungi play a crucial role in plant nutrient uptake, water relations, ecosystem establishment, plant diversity, and productivity of plants. Mycorrhizas also protect plants against root pathogens and toxic stresses. The fundamental importance of the mycorrhizal association in restoration and to improve revegetation of disturbed mined lands is well recognized. However, the use of mycorrhizal biotechnology in land reclamation and revegetation of disturbed mine sites is not well practiced in many parts of the world. The destruction of mycorrhizal fungal network in soil system is the vital event of soil disturbance, and its reinstallation is an essential approach of habitat restoration. Successful revegetation of severely disturbed mine lands can be achieved by using “biological tools” mycorrhizal fungi inoculated tree seedlings, shrubs, and grasses. This chapter discusses the different types of mycorrhizas, which play an essential function in altering disturbed lands into productive lands, the mechanisms by which disturbed ecosystem benefits through symbiotic associations and their interactions in the rhizosphere. The importance of reinstallation of mycorrhizal systems in the rhizosphere is emphasized and their impact in landscape regeneration and in bioremediation of contaminated soils are discussed.

This thesis analyses an imminent coastal freeway along Mumbai’s Western Waterfront through the lens of multiple urban contestations that challenge the many embedded inequalities in the project. Mumbai’s Coastal Road, a 10 km freeway, will be built on reclaimed land along the city’s Western Waterfront and will irreversibly alter its physical, social and cultural landscape. A portrayal of modernity, this project is intertwined with broader political, social and environmental contestations and is equally enmeshed in layers of colonial and post-colonial pasts while engaging with contemporary challenges of climate change, resilience and sustainability.

The thesis makes an argument that roads must be analysed beyond their
principal purpose as transportation infrastructures and shifts the focus to the undesirable consequences of engendering a splintering urbanism and creating unequal cities. Explaining the vicious loop of more cars and more roads, it explores how such projects are frequently the product of world-conjuring visions of modernity in the Global South. Building on the interrelation of infrastructure and unequal cities, it explores the trend of elite enclaving and ‘mixophobia’ that have come to define a new form of insulated urbanism that eviscerates the sociocultural capital and fabric of cities.

The on going contestations are thematically organised to explain aspects of the economic viability of the project, its impact on livelihoods of artisanal fishing communities, and the threat from reclamation to the recently discovered marine biodiversity off the West Coast.

Proposing an alternative vision of modernity and a sustainable city, the
thesis suggests the possibilities that emerge from city-wide solidarity against imposed visions and the assembly of a minor architecture. It proceeds to propose the reweaving of a splintered city through the strategies of leveraging ‘micro-publics’ to reconnect people through public commons.

The methodology is based on a literature review, stakeholder interviews, site visits, and data analysis.

This article discusses the role of irrigation in the Po Valley between 12th and 16th centuries. It studies how the development of irrigation affected the landscape, the presence of irrigation in the legislation, the discussion of irrigation in agronomical and technical literature (including Leonardo da Vinci).