Sunday, March 28, 2010
Land Reclamation ;)

These people are reclaiming land, what impressions do you get about land reclamation?


What is Land Reclamation?

Land Reclamation has several meanings in Geography:

1) Land Reclamation is where you create dry land on areas with water. For example, swamps lakes or seas.

2) Land Reclamation may also mean to "recover" land that is damaged or abandoned. (Make the land usable once again)

There are 3 main ways to reclaim land:

* Landfill
* Empoldering
* Reclaiming Derelict Land

For more information on each, look at the other posts :) (heehee)

Google definition:
The improving or recovering or even creation of land for human use.

Pros & Cons of Land Reclamation:

pros-
1) Able to create more land for use.

cons-
1) Expensive
2) Destroys nature!!! (For example, the swamps or lakes that you use to create your land)
3) The Derelict land may not even recover. :O
4) There is a limit to how much land you can reclaim
- As you still need to maintain sea lands for other purposes (e.g.: ships and ports)
- Only can reclaim to a certain extent. For example: (LAST TIME) 5-10m deep (NOW) 15+m deep. (And the price would go up too!),



Why? (Do we reclaim land?)
We need to reclaim land as Singapore is a small country (581.6km square in 1960) and to suit the rise in population!

What? (Is it for?)
* To create more land - 51.5km square is reclaimed land (That’s 8.9% of the total land area in Singapore!)
* To build more homes (HDB! See the other posts on HDB :D)
* To build more recreational facilities (E.g.: East Coast Park! & Marina Bay!)
* To fulfil Commercial, industrial and transport needs

Who? (Reclaims Land?)
* 2 private Oil Companies (Pulau Bukum, Pulau Bukum Kechil, Pulau Ular and Pulau Ayer Chawan)
* And the 3 main agencies in Singapore:
- HDB (Housing and Development Board)
- JTC (Jurong Town Corporation)
- PSA Corporation (2nd largest port operator in the world.)

How? (Do the reclaim land?)
* They reclaim the land at the swamps and coasts of Singapore
* They also merge islands :) (Eg: Pulau Sakra and Pulau Bakau are now called Pulau Sakara after reclaiming land. It is now 10X larger than BOTH of the former islands!)
* Imported Sand (mostly from Indonesia) is used to reclaim land.

The future for Singapore:* It is predicted that in 2030, the total amount of reclaimed land would be 151.5km square

Comparing to Netherlands

Netherlands is said to be the country which has done the most land reclamation dating back to 700 years ago! (and is STILL continuing until today :O) 2 fifths of the country is made up of poldered land which used to be sea, lakes or swamps. They are so proud it that they say "God created the world, the Dutch created Holland" :D

Netherlands uses EMPOLDERING to reclaim land and use it for most productive farmlands for dairying, horticulture (gardening) and arable farming.

By: Toh Wen Feng (17)

Sources:
EARTH OUR HOME 2nd edition textbook
MY HEAD :D
Google
http://library.thinkquest.org/C006891/reclamation.html

Friday, March 19, 2010
Hydroponics :O

self-taken pictures when we went to a hydroponic farm.










-
What is hydroponics?

Hydroponics come from 2 Greek Words. "Hydro" and "Ponos"

Hydro - Water
Ponos - Labour

Hydro + Ponos = Hydroponics :D (TADAAA~!)

Google definition:
A technique of growing plants (without soil) in water containing dissolved nutrients

Pros & Cons of hydroponics:

pros-
1. suitable soil is not needed
2. no need for crop rotation
3. growing process can be controlled (constant results/quality)
4. water can be reused (save water)
5. heavy work (eg tilting soil) is reduced
6. pest & disease problems are better controlled without the usage of herbicides or pesticides
7. pollution of soil with unused nutrient is greatly reduced
8. significant reduction in space requirements
9. growing time is often lessened

cons-
1. capital is high
2. annual costs of replacing substrate
3. pests & diseases spread quickly
4. daily attention is required
5. specially formulated nutrient is needed
6. Beneficial microbial soil life is usually absent


Comparing our ways to theirs
In comparison to the methods used in other countries, hydroponics is more easily accesible to a small country like Singapore. This is due to the restrain land that we have. Hydroponics requires only a small amount of land, as compared to other forms of farming. Hydroponics not only allow one to grow plants in a more efficient and productive manner with less labour and time required. It also further reduces the dependency on other countries for food.

By: Christle (04)and Wen Feng (17)

Introduction - Singapore, Our little red dot :)

As most of us know, Singapore has evolved from a fishing village with rural settlements to an urbanised country bustling with people.

Singapore is home to 4,839,400 people(since 2008)with an area of only 682.7 km square. How does Singapore do it? O-O?

Our little red dot may be small but it certainly has no problems. :D

Singapore has came up with many ways to overcome shortage of land.

By: Christle (04) and Wen Feng. (17)