Program

Reclamation has a long history in worldwide development process. Since reclamation has a significant influence even threat on coastal ecosystem, it attracts more and more attentions from people all over the world especially under the situation that coastal environmental protection is becoming a hot topic nowadays. To better understand the development of reclamation, a global comparison is needed. Coastal reclamations in several representative regions of the world are compared in the study, the United Kingdom and Netherlands in Europe, Japan, Korea and China in Asia as well as Spain in South America. Agricultural expansion, industrial development, transportation and residential request are four major purposes of coastal reclamation. Among these the dominant purpose of reclamation varied both in time and space, with agricultural expansion giving way to industrial and transportation needs. In different regions, the pace of coastal reclamation variations resulting from various purposes varied, which mainly depended on political, economic and geographical factors. Additionally, industrialization and modernization play important roles in the pace of reclamation variation. In Europe, reclamation began at an early time due to agriculture and residential needs, like the estuary of the Ouse River in UK and the peat lands in Netherlands respectively. Reclamation in Netherlands also mainly resulted from living safety, which was distinctive around the world due to the specific geography-low lands. In Asia, reclamation mainly began gradually in modernization period with Japan first, Korea followed and China last. The purpose of reclamation in Asia first was agriculture and transformed to industrial development. The pace of reclamation began at a low speed, increased sharply and decreased slowly in Japan and Korea. On the contrary, reclamation in China is still increasing. In Spain, the beginning time of reclamation varied from the 18^th century to the first half of the 20^th century in different regions due to urban development or agricultural production. Regional reclamation not only influenced regional coastal ecosystem but also influenced global ecosystem. It is hoped that this study could draw attention to relationship between worldwide reclamation and global change.