Singapore’s downtown skyline is spectacular. Ultramodern steel and glass skyscrapers jostle with the few remaining colonial-era buildings, bearing physical testament to the nation’s meteoric economic rise since achieving independence in 1965. Less apparent than this vertical expansion, but arguably more significant, has been Singapore’s horizontal growth. Indeed, much of the downtown core lies on land that did not exist when the British founded the colony of Singapore in 1819. Beginning during the colonial period, and greatly accelerating following independence, Singapore has used land reclamation to increase its national domain by nearly 25-percent, from approximately 58,150 to 71,910 hectares (see Figure 1). Despite being a small country, Singapore has reclaimed the sixth most land from seas and wetlands of any nation on earth.2 The construction of new land was a key component of Singapore’s celebrated rise from “third world” to “first world” in the decades following 1965, and by most metrics this transition has been a stunning success. But the economic benefits of remaking Singapore’s coastline came at significant ecological and social costs. Nearly all of the original shore, and its attendant mangrove forests and natural beaches, were lost. So too were two-thirds of Singapore's coral reefs. While carrying out this

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新加坡失落的海岸：1822 年至今的土地开垦、国家发展和人类与生态社区的消失

新加坡市中心的天际线非常壮观。超现代的钢铁和玻璃摩天大楼与仅存的殖民时代建筑争吵，证明了该国自 1965 年独立以来经济迅速崛起。与这种垂直扩张相比，新加坡的横向扩张不那么明显，但可以说更显着。事实上，市中心的大部分地区都位于英国在 1819 年建立新加坡殖民地时不存在的土地。从殖民时期开始，并在独立后大大加速，新加坡利用土地开垦将其国土面积扩大了近 25 -%，从大约 58,150 到 71,910 公顷（见图 1）。尽管是一个小国，新加坡在地球上任何国家的海洋和湿地中开垦了第六多的土地。2 新土地的建设是新加坡在 1965 年之后的几十年里从“第三世界”向“第一世界”的著名崛起的关键组成部分，从大多数指标来看，这种转变取得了惊人的成功。但是，改造新加坡海岸线的经济效益是以巨大的生态和社会成本为代价的。几乎所有的原始海岸以及随之而来的红树林和天然海滩都消失了。新加坡三分之二的珊瑚礁也是如此。在执行此操作时 以及随之而来的红树林和天然海滩，都消失了。新加坡三分之二的珊瑚礁也是如此。在执行此操作时 以及随之而来的红树林和天然海滩，都消失了。新加坡三分之二的珊瑚礁也是如此。在执行此操作时