China’s Dredging In the South China Sea Created 2,900 Acres of New Islands

We ’ve known for years that China ’s armed services is spearheading one of the big commonwealth reformation projects ever in the eye of the South China Sea . But a report from the Pentagon yesterdaysays that the labor is far largerthan previously thought : 2,900 acres of new land has been make — about tripling the size of the entire grouping of rude island .

You ’ve probably heard about this payoff a lot this summertime . The chemical chain of island , called the Spratly Group , are contend territory , and the construction has roil the other country put title to the territory , admit the Philippines to Malaysia . Tensions have escalated over the retiring few months , as China stepped up its effort to release seven of the islands into usable farming . In June , as international atmospheric pressure to halt the expression oeuvre grow , the party ’s foreign ministry make out a statement saying the work would becomplete within the month .

It ’s been tough to get a ikon on precisely how much land has been reclaimed along this isolated chemical chain of tiny island . But a report published on the Department of Defense website yesterday ( PDF ) give us a telephone number : As of May , China had only reform 2,000 acres . In June , that telephone number ballooned to 2,900 acres , or 4.5 square miles . That ’s 900 acres of new land in a month — a little more than the size of it of Central Park :

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By comparability , Vietnam has regenerate a aggregate of approximately 80 acres ; Malaysia , 70 land ; the Philippines , 14 acres ; and Taiwan , 8 acres . China has now reclaim 17 time more kingdom in 20 months than the other claimant blend over the past 40 years , accounting for roughly 95 pct of all reclaimed land in the Spratly Islands .

For linear perspective , the total landmass of the natural Spratly Group is only 1.5 square miles , compare to 4.5 geographical mile of freshly - dredged land .

While territory - grabbing is pretty much as old as land states themselves ( older , actually ) , what ’s so fascinating about this story is the scale of the engineering science that ’s make this variety of development feasible . Right now , China and its challenger are using dredging machines to suck up sand from below the water system line and deposit it on the existing sandy islands of the Spratly group . That ’s a technique that ’s been around for a long time in various forms , but seldom at this scale .

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Soon , dredging may not even be necessary . In 2014 , China ’s military planned touse floating docks tospeed up the processof sprain island into usable bases . At a pressure group discussion attended byPopular Sciencelast calendar month , a companionship call Jidong Development Group announce program to construct largefloating base basesbuilt for military usance in the South China Sea . The largest of these floating platforms would can about 1.5 million lots , in comparison to the current disc - holder for the largest float object ever build , Shell ’s Prelude gas refinery , which displaces only 600,000 net ton . PerPopSci :

The purpose though would allow the island to descale much larger , by attaching more semi - submersible Kingston-upon Hull modules , just like Lego bricks . Despite the large size of the individual mental faculty , the swim islands could be well tack in deep seaward waters by link together modules transported by semi - submergible heavy lift ship from landbased shipyard .

That variety of technology , if it actually is acquire , could have far - attain applications out of doors of any country ’s territorial call - fashioning . Just look to the Netherlands , a pioneer of both dredging and unlawful dry land renewal , for case of how modular docks can be used asa stand - in for unanimous landin areas where flooding or sea storey procession threatens community . Whatever the use , it seems inevitable that we ’ll be hearing more about sea - borne construction tech over the next few decades .

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