In the South China Sea (SCS) between 20, China built 3,200 acres of new land, Vietnam built 120 acres of new land, and Taiwan built eight acres of new land 4. This activity allows nations to project military power by adding armaments on these new islands, and to protect their highly important fishing fleets 3.
This may result in both forward-looking deterrent policies that limit island-building as well as backward-looking compensation.Īrtificial island-creation generally involves cutter suction dredging (CSD) and/or trailing hopper dredging (THD) often followed by airfield construction 1, 2. The potential associations between these damages and a long-term reduction in ocean life and resources could serve inter-governmental bodies with a baseline metric for evaluating the level of damage caused. We anticipate this ex post facto quantification of the connectivity between island-construction, large particulate plumes and a decrease in absorption related to marine life in the water column to establish a starting point for further study into ecosystem impact. Comparison of satellite-derived chlorophyll-a, backscatter, absorption and remote sensing reflectance at 412 nm suggest that dredging activities led to a decrease in biological health of the region resulting from the smothering of natural benthic habitats and reef complexes with sediment. Through use of satellite imagery, we investigate the island-construction on Mischief Reef in the South China Sea, showing backscatter increases of up to 350% in waters surrounding the reef, with plumes of excess sediment exceeding 250 km 2 at times during island-construction, and the cumulative area impacted by dredging exceeding 1,200 km 2.
The extent of the damage caused by island-creation is believed to be large, as the South China Sea reefs support the largest concentration of marine biodiversity on Earth. This paper quantifies environmental effects of island-building operations in the South China Sea, which result from dredging and can negatively impact marine flora, fauna, and ecosystems.
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