Geotechnical aspects of land reclamation and ground improvement

Land reclamation is usually carried out to create or expand land for future infrastructure developments around expanding cities. Future developments are generally for residential, commercial, industrial and institutional infrastructure including transportation hubs like seaports and airports but can also include many other uses such as agricultural land development, flood protection or environmental protection and so on. Land reclamation is usually accompanied by ground improvement works both for underlying soils and/or filling soils. Since land reclamation and ground improvement are carried out using geomaterials, geotechnical engineering plays a major role. Geotechnical input is required throughout, from the beginning to the end of the land reclamation works. This chapter describes the geotechnical aspects of land reclamation and ground improvement where geotechnical engineering works are carried out or provide input at every stage of the land reclamation and ground improvement process, highlighting the importance of geotechnical engineering.