The reclamation of land from surrounding waters is used in Singapore to expand the city-state's limited area of usable, natural land. Land reclamation is most simply done by adding material such as rocks, soil and cement to an area of water; alternatively, submerged wetlands or similar biomes can be drained. Depending on the purpose of the land reclamation project, the agency responsible for the project would differ: The Housing and Development Board (HDB) is responsible for land reclamation meant for residential purposes, Jurong Town Corporation is responsible for projects designated for industrial uses, and Maritime Port Authority of Singapore handles land reclamation for Changi Airport and Singapore's ports.
In Singapore, the former has been the most common method until recently, with sand the predominant material used. Due to a global shortage and restricted supply of the required type of sand (river and beach sand, not desert sand), Singapore has switched to polders for reclamation since 2016, a method from the Netherlands in which an area is surrounded by a dyke and pumped dry to reclaim the land.
Land reclamation allows for increased development and urbanization, and in addition to Singapore has been similarly useful to Hong Kong and Macau. Each of these is a small coastal territory restrained by its geographical boundaries, and thus traditionally limited by the ocean's reach. The use of land reclamation allows these territories to expand outwards by recovering land from the sea. At just , the entire country of Singapore is smaller than New York City (778km2 /302 sq mi) and bigger than Jakarta (661.23 km2 / 255.30 sq mi) As such, the Singaporean government has used land reclamation to supplement Singapore's available commercial, residential, industrial, and governmental properties (military and official buildings). Land reclamation in Singapore also allows for the preservation of local historic and cultural communities, as building pressures are reduced by the addition of reclaimed land.Tai-Chee Wong, Belinda Yuen, and Charles Goldblum, ed., Spatial Planning for a Sustainable Singapore (Springer Science + Business Media B.V., 2008), 26.
Land reclamation has been used in Singapore since the early 19th century, extensively so in this last half-century in response to the city-state's rapid economic growth.Glaser, "Land Reclamation". In 1960, Singapore was home to fewer than two million people; that number had more than doubled by 2008, to almost four and a half million people.Wong, Spatial Planning. VII. To keep up with such an increase in population (as well as a concurrent surge in the country's economy and industrialization efforts), Singapore has increased its land mass by 22% since independence in 1965, with land continuously being set aside for future use."Such Quantities of Sand," The Economist. February 26, 2015.Wong, Spatial Planning. 120–21. Though Singapore's native population is no longer increasing as rapidly as it was in the mid-twentieth century, the city-state has experienced a continued influx in its foreign population,Wong, Spatial Planning. 23. resulting in a continued investment in land reclamation by the government. The government thus plans to expand the city-state by an additional 7–8% by 2030.
History
Early colonial Singapore (1800s) The early phases of land reclamation began not long after Sir Stamford Raffles arrived in what would become modern Singapore in 1819. Raffles had come to the area with the goal of developing a British port to rival that of the Dutch, and though contemporary Singapore was the ideal location for a harbour, it was at the time only a small fishing village.Matt K. Matsuda, Pacific Worlds: A History of Seas, Peoples, and Cultures (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012). 197. Converting this village into a significant trading centre required reorganization and better utilization of the land. After some alterations to his original plans, Raffles decided in 1822 that the commercial centre of his new port should be located on the south bank of the Singapore River, close to the river's mouth.National Library Board Singapore, http://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/history/events/feddcf2a-2074-4ae6-b272-dc0db80e2146 “Singapore’s First Land Reclamation Project Begins", last modified 2014. At that time, the south bank was largely uninhabited swamp, covered in mangrove trees and sprinkled with creeks. Though Singapore's first British Resident, William Farquhar, expressed concerns about the cost and feasibility of reclaiming this land, it was eventually decided that the project was achievable. The southwest bank of the river was found to be prone to flooding, so Raffles decided to dismantle a small hill (located in today's Raffles Place) and use the soil to raise and fill in the low-lying areas that would otherwise be affected by flooding. The project began in the second half of 1822, and was completed in three to four months (largely by Chinese, Malay, and Indian labourers). The land was broken up into lots, which were sold off to commercial investors.
After this first land reclamation project, there were no significant alterations to Singapore's geography until 1849, which brought the building of port facilities that became increasingly important after the establishment of the British Straits Settlements in 1826 and the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869, both of which allowed for improved connections between the city-state and Europe.
After the turn of the century (particularly from 1919 to 1923), Singaporean land reclamation was primarily the result of a need for increased public utilities (such as roads and railways) and military coastal protection. Such development was interrupted by World War II, when the Japanese occupied Singapore and directed focus away from an improved Singapore and towards an extended Japanese culture. There was thus a lull in industrialization in Singapore during this period, which continued throughout the 1950s and early 1960s (during which time Singapore experienced extensive political change) until the city-state's participation in the founding of Malaysia in 1963.
Merger with Malaysia (1963–1965) and independence (1965–present) As part of Malaysia and continuing after independence in 1965, Singapore benefitted from economic development programs, which both enabled and required significant land reclamation projects. Rapidly increasing demand for industrial, infrastructural, commercial, and residential land resulted in projects that reclaimed hundreds of hectares (acres) at a time. The Jurong Industrial Estate began development in the early 1960s to meet industrial land needs, and by 1968 already housed 153 factories, with another 46 under construction. The original landscape of the region was greatly changed and is now restricted to the areas around the Pandan Reservoir and Sungei Pandan. Also in the early 1960s, Singapore's central business district was extended into land reclaimed from the sea. Post-war industrialization and land reclamation transformed Singapore's weak economy.
In 1981, Singapore Changi Airport opened after the clearing of roughly of swampland and the introduction of over of land- and seafill. As Changi Airport maintains a policy of continual development in preparation for the future, a third airport terminal was planned from the beginning, and was opened on January 1, 2007.
By 1991, 10% of Singapore was reclaimed land. By that year, industrial land on Singapore's mainland had again grown scarce, and it was decided that seven islets south of Jurong would be merged to form one large island, Jurong Island. By 2008, Singapore was one of the top three oil trading and refining hubs globally.Wong, Spatial Planning. 51. The necessary facilities for such an involvement in the oil industry require a very large amount of space, and today, Singapore's facilities are housed almost entirely on Jurong Island and the Jurong Industrial Estates.
In 1992, the Marina Centre and Marina South land reclamation projects were completed after their commission in the late 1970s, encompassing of waterfront development. These projects involved the removal of the Telok Ayer Basin and Inner Roads; the mouth of the Singapore River was also rerouted to flow into Marina Bay rather than directly into the sea. The Marina Bay reclamation projects added significant waterside land adjacent to Singapore's central business district, creating prime real estate that is used for commercial, residential, hotel, and entertainment purposes today.
Future projects Singapore continues to develop and expand, with plans to expand the city's land area by an additional 7–8% of reclaimed land by 2030.Goh Chok Tong, "Singapore is the Global City of Opportunity" (Keynote Address, Singapore Conference in London, March 15, 2015).
Below is a list of land reclamation projects that are either underway or under planning:
Long Island
As part of efforts to protect the east coast of Singapore from sea-level rise, the tentatively named "Long Island" project was first announced as part of the Singapore Concept Plan 1991 and again in November 2023 by the Urban Redevelopment Authority's chief planner and chief executive Liu Thai Ker and Minister of National Development Desmond Lee respectively.
Based the 2023 proposal, approximately of land (around twice the land area of Marina Bay) will be reclaimed at the coastline of East Coast Park to create an elevated stretch of land consisting of 3 tracts of land, one of them being an islet, as well as an reservoir. The proposal aims to protect against mean sea level rise that could reach 1m by 2100, with peaks of potentially 4-5m due to high tides and storm surges, be a less disruptive coastal protection measure than a combination of a 3m sea wall, 12 tidal gates and pumping stations occupying 15 football fields of space along East Coast Park, and create a new reservoir for Singapore's water needs.
On 30 March 2026, the Urban Development Authority announced that "preparatory works" would commence shortly. This includes drawing up a timeline to remove wrecks on the sea floor and the transportation of materials into the vicinity of the reclamation project.
Changi Changi Beach Park To create land for the development of an aviation park, of land will be reclaimed between Changi Beach Park and the Aviation Park Staging Ground. Despite the announcement in 2025, no timeline as to when the project will commence has been provided. The 193-ha land reclamation is a reduction of around from the original plan as shown in the 2021 Long-Term Plan, an adjustment made to protect a seagrass field.
Changi Bay of land off Changi Bay was announced for reclamation works in 2022 by the Housing and Development Board for future needs. The works are expected to take 10 years.
Northern Tuas Basin In 2023, JTC Corporation announced plans to reclaim the Northern Tuas Basin to meet future industrial land demands and create room for infrastructure and road linkages for the industrial sector Tuas South and the future Tuas Port, expected to be completed in the 2040s. Around of land is expected to be reclaimed. JTC and the National Environment Agency will trial the feasibility of incineration bottom ash as reclamation fill, reducing demand for space at Pulau Semakau.
On July 11, 2025, construction company Penta-Ocean Construction announced that the company had been awarded the contract for the land reclamation by JTC Corporation. The project is expected to take five years and complete at July 2030.
Woodlands Checkpoint