TheLandLoverrs♥

Amanda's reflection:

Yes, i do think that change is inevitable.As the population of Man increase, there will always be a shortage of land.The government has to built more high-rise buildings so that lesser space will be taken up and more people will be able to live at that limited space.If they do not find alternatives for this problem, the shortage of land will affect a lot more people f the future generations to come.These days, the expectations of Man are more and they expect a higher status of living. The government has to built more urban buildings and shopping centres for as to please these expectations.

Man is a selfish creature who does not care for the need of other wildlife but only for self-satisfaction. They will cut down trees and use all methods so that we are able to get as much land for ourselves as possible.However much this will affect the environment, we are still always trying to satisfy our needs.

Therefore,even though this change will benefit all of us Man, it is very harmful to the wildlife and they might one day become extinct.So,we should always find new ways to carry on with this change and to harm wildlife as less as possible.

yours sincerely. landlovers
8:24 AM

After this project, we did our reflections on Land Supply. So, here are our reflections:D

XinYing's reflection:

Yes, change is inevitable. Times are changing, economic development is happening very quickly and the population is also increasing therefore, land is never enough. For example, nowadays, many people adopt urban life. As more and more people wanted to work in cities as the pay is much more attractive, they compete to live around that area too, for convenience. People also tend to start their business around the city centre as the location is good with huge flow of people. Since competition for land there is intense, the price of land would have to increase in order to allocate the land to different uses. Therefore, activities that generate high income or profits are found in the cities and make people wanted to work and live there more and competition goes on.

Land in Singapore is very limited and also Singaporeans wanted convenience so many facilities(playground, shopping centre, coffee shops, carparks, and other necessities of humans), housing (HDBs), industrial, are built very close together some are even built above or under the HDBs. As the standard of living improves, people demanded more. They wanted more recreational stops, more facilities and therefore more land supply is needed for housing(many Singaporeans stay separately from their parents and the population in Singapore is increasing so more houses are needed to provide them with a place to live in), recreational(Gyms, shopping centres, parks), commercial(companies expand their workplace to accommodate more working talents), industrial(factories also expand their workplace so that they could produce more products at a faster rate) and transport(so that it is faster and easier to get from one place to another). Hence, maximizing use of land is needed. The buildings had to be built closely to make use of space fully and not waste it as land is used for many developments. Land has to be reclaimed so that the land could be used for other developments. Some land had to be conserved as they are tourist attractions and tourists bring profit for the country so these land could not be destroyed. Not only does urban life contribute to the change, country life as well. People living in countryside have to live, eat as well. They need to earn more money. As there are lesser buildings there, agriculture is mostly carried out over there. Agricultural types such as shifting cultivation uses the “slash and burn” method and plantation agriculture requires a large area of land. Both agricultures clear land, one is mainly subsistence another for commercial purposes. Due to these reasons, the methods: Land reclamation, Land conservation, Land clearance, Maximizing use of land and Increasing price of land, to increase land is evitable.Humans win in the changes. Due to the all these methods to increase land, humans have more land for their own usage for development. More land could be used to meet the demands of men. However, the wildlife loses. These methods of increasing land affects the environment and the marine life. For example, land reclamation changes the sea to land and marine life would be affected as they lose their habitat and they have lesser space to swim around as their habitat has decreased in size. Some of them might be forced to leave. Land clearance affects wildlife that lives on land. Their habitat is destroyed and they have to find another shelter. Some might have even lose their lives due to the fire to clear forests. However, wildlife wins in land conservation as their habitat is conserved and they are safe from losing their habitat. Humans lose in increasing price of land as they have to pay more to buy that piece of land. Humans win in maximizing use of land as they could get from one place to another faster. It is more convenient.

In all, humans win more than the wildlife.Humans are mainly responsible for these changes. Humans are the ones who wanted more land for their own usage and neglect the lives of wildlife and the effects. Humans are always not satisfied with what they have and always demanded more therefore these methods of land have to be used to increase supply of land for man.

Louise's reflection:

Yes, I think that change is inevitable. Due to the high demands of men, the land supply of Earth is definitely not enough to meet the needs as the supply of land is limited and scarce. The demands include housing, agriculture, industrial, transportation and recreation. Men need a place to live in, need food for survival, need to travel to places for work, and also they need to relax. Hence, although all of these can take place in just the small land area, but men tends to be greedy and also ask for more, therefore change is definitely inevitable as more land must be reclaim, and actions would be taken to increase supply of land, to meet the demands.

Men would sure benefit from the change, from the newly increased land. To them, the increased land would be more space for more demands, and they might be asking for more. However, the increase of land would largely affect the environment, the nature, and the seas. The increased amount of land could be reclaimed from the seas, and the living organisms in the sea might be affected. Through land clearance, the environment is also affected as forests are cut down to clear land.

Even though, it benefits us alot, but as it affects the environment, it will affect us in some ways. For instance, when we burn down the forests, if we inhale the smoke produced, it would be bad for our health.

To summarize, the change, the increase of land, the men' responsibility would be the largest. It started off with men' demands that in turn caused the increase of land.

yours sincerely. landlovers
4:24 AM

How each land use affect different parties:

Maximizing use of land:

When a lot of things are built on a same piece of land, it causes overcrowding and it would be very cramp. As such, Singaporeans might feel very cramp there is not much space in between for example; people might not feel good as sceneries are being blocked by the blocks of flats when they looked out of the window. Singaporeans might feel bored as looking left and right it is all buildings and blocks of flats. However, they might feel that it is more convenient as the distance between one place and another is very short and it takes a shorter time for people to travel here and there.

Increasing price of land:

Singaporeans might feel that land is very expensive in Singapore and to buy a house have to spend a lot of money and so some of them choose to migrate to other countries or but a smaller house instead. However, businessmen might feel happy as they see this as an opportunity to earn more money as they could increase the price of land. As such, Singaporeans have to spend lots money on buying their flats while businessman could get a higher profit.

Land clearance:

The wildlife might feel very sad as their habitat were cleared and destroyed and they are homeless. Some of their young (in some cases eggs) might have even get killed while the trees were being cleared. They might feel very unfair too as animals and humans are both living things, however, we humans are so selfish and neglect the fact that wildlife is lost when tress are cleared and just do this for our own purposes.

Humans could make use of the trees they cut down for wood and timber to make various products such as paper and furniture.

The picture shows the rabbit is sad and also upset because of its habitat, which is gone because of land clearance.

The bird is dead because of land clearance. Land clearance caused their habitat to be destroyed.

Land conservation:

The wildlife might feel happy and their habitats are protected from being destroyed and they would not be homeless. They can also lay their eggs and give birth to their young without worrying whether they might get killed. They have a “longer life” in these cases.The government could also make use of these conserved lands for proper development later.

This picture shows the turtle is dead in its own habitat, but we think that the turtle has laid eggs.

yours sincerely. landlovers
7:28 AM

We will explain to you about how are some of the methods implemented in Singapore, and we will be focusing on one area in Singapore, the Punggol estate.

Land Reclamation through landfill and Draining swamps:

Singapore had been using Land Reclamation as early as 1820. As Singapore is a small island surrounded by water, large-scale land reclamation by landfill has been carried out in different parts of Singapore, places which are near lake or reservoir, mainly at the South-East, South-West and North-East of Singapore, for instance, Punggol. Since 1960s. Swamps along the Singapore River were filled to provide land for early settlers. Other than reclaiming land from the places that are near lake or reservoir, but also from the sea, such as Marina City.

The picture shows how the land is used after land reclamation in East Coast. For your information, East Coast is one of the areas that practised land reclamation.

In 1961, reclamation of mangrove swamps in Jurong spearheaded Singapore's industrial plans and other land reclamation projects. In 1963, the land reclamation project in Bedok provided space to house Singaporeans.

More land is also needed for rapid economic growth, such as expanding commercial and industrial activities, and developing infrastructure like the highways, MRT and LRT systems, and other facilities.

After reclamation in Punggol, and at any road junctions, we are able to see LRT system tracks to enable LRTs to work and to facilitate transportation and accessibility, even though it is just a small estate.

Increasing price of land:

When the land is located at the city centre in Singapore, the prices will most likely be more expensive than the areas away from the city centre. Developers are showing more interest in good residential areas, as home buyers had been showing interest when a new project launches. Prices of houses had then been brought down, so that it could lure developers to replenish their land bank. Research had shown that more than 7,200 new homes were sold in the first half of year 2009, a great increase as compared to 4,200 units sold in year 2008.

Among them was a plot at Dakota Crescent, which attracted a bid of at least S$130 million. Buyers will only bid high for projects which they believed in, so that they will earn high profit and the residents can enjoy leisure and relaxation such as shopping centres.

This picture shows a large land area in Punggol, 22,497.3 square metres is held for bidding, and it states by application under the reserve list.

Maximising use of land:

On a same piece of land, many things are build on it. This includes housing, recreational (shopping centre, playground, coffee shops, supermarkets, churches etc). These buildings are also verticalized rather than occupying a big piece of land. This is maximising use of land in Singapore.

On the same plot of land, schools, parks, flats are built together, and the recreational place, Punggol Plaza, is built for people to shop and relax.

For instance, Housing Development Board(HDB) flats in Punggol are built near to each other and vertically. Also, instead of leaving the space in between the buildings as its own, the HDB had built a Roof Garden, which is a recreational place for residents to walk about, relax and also young children to play in.

The passageway is connected to the flats and the roof garden and it is sheltered.

Instead of creating another space for a park, the roof garden is located above the car park, and it made use of the space above. It is a recreational place for people to relax.

The buildings in Punggol estate, are built high, in other words, verticalization.

yours sincerely. landlovers
7:15 AM

Now we tell you the advantages and disadvantages of the different methods implemented in some countries.

Increasing price of land:

-Cities like Singapore is very small as therefore makes the land very valuable as competition among different land uses is intense. The price of the land is an effective method to allocate the scarce land in a competitive situation. The closer one gets to the city centre, the more expensive the land becomes.

-Countries like America has much more supply of land than Singapore. There is no need to increase the price of land to allocate the land for different uses as there is no competition for land.

-Therefore, increasing the price of land is not very effective and therefore a disadvantage to them, an advantage to us.

-For example, “Property prices started to rise in 2005, but only really took off in 2007. Singapore’s residential property price index rose by 23.6% (20.9% in real terms) in 2007, after 2006’s 7.15% rise (6.1% in real terms). Property prices in prime districts rose considerably more.”(taken from google.com)

-For example, In 1996 the unit land price of a single family residence (middle class) of Tokyo averaged 489,000 yen per m2

-Compared by the index of Tokyo as 100, the average land price of Singapore was at 146.0 (714,000 yen/m2) with very active property market due to its growing economy. This shows that the price of land in Singapore is very high.

Land Clearance:

-Land clearance may seem weird to be known as an advantage, but it is, to Latin America. “Excessive deforestation has been taking place in tropical areas of Latin America for the past several decades. Among the causes of accelerated deforestation are population and income growth, extensive logging, expanding agricultural growth patterns and lagging agricultural yields. Government policies have also contributed to accelerating deforestation, by adopting measures to increase the profitability of agriculture in forested areas, constructing roads in frontier areas and adopting patterns of agricultural growth favoring large-scale mechanized production and low employment generation.

-According to economic theory, improving tenure security in established agricultural areas should increase productivity, labor use, and the efficiency of land market transactions. Recent empirical evidence in Honduras, Paraguay and Brazil has confirmed that access to a secure title increases access to credit and promotes on-farm investments. Therefore, strengthening property rights is an important element in a strategy of agricultural intensification and employment generation. It will reduce demographic pressures on forest resources as well as the demand for additional agricultural output. However, increased tenure security must be complemented by removing those policy biases that facilitate land concentration and the under-utilization of productive lands.” (taken from http://www.iadb.org/sds/publication/publication_1030_e.htm)

-This shows that land clearance benefitted Latin America and so it is an advantage to them.

Maximising Land Use:

- Singapore is small and land is scarce. Buildings are built close together as a result of the intense competition for land. This will then allow more residential flats to house a growing population and offers more offices to accommodate expanding economic activities. The buildings are then built high to have more space, or stories, for offices and commercial uses, instead of having more buildings to compete with limited land supply. Skyscrapers are another solution to the rising demand for land. This method is very effective for Singapore as we have little land and could make use of the height of space. Therefore, this method is an advantage to us.

- While for countries like China which has a very big area of land, this method is not very effective as there is abundant supply of land and there is no competition for land and so maximising use of land is not needed. Therefore, it is a disadvantage to China.

Credits from www.google.com
and http://www.iadb.org/sds/publication/publication_1030_e.htm

yours sincerely. landlovers
7:00 AM

As land supply is limited and scarce, there are various ways responded to increase land supply and to meet men' demands.

The responses to the shortage of land are to find out more ways to increase land. These methods can be possible, such as Land Reclamation, Increase the price of land, Maximizing land use, Land clearance and Land conservation.

Land Reclamation:

It is a process whereby new lands are created from sea or riverbeds by adding sand to fill that part of the sea or riverbed up. However, it is a form of habitat destruction, and new reclamation projects are restricted because of environmental protection laws.

Increasing price of land:

Higher land prices are caused by a decrease in supply or an increase in demand. The price mechanism controls the allocation of land uses. It refers to the processes by which changes in price guide and shape changes in the value and types of goods and services that are produced. Land prices generally decrease with distance from the city centre. As a result, activities that are able to pay the highest rentals are often found in the city centre. Activities that require a larger floor area would more likely be located in the outskirts of the city.When many businesses compete for the same favourable location, the price of land will rise.

Maximising Land Use:

Land management through land use planning is important as it can help to settle conflicts about land use so as to maximise existing land use. In urban areas, different activities such as residential, commercial, and industrial, are carried out together in the old city centre, forming a mixed land use. Buildings are also built close together as a result of the intense competition for land. This will then allow more residential flats to house a growing population and offers more offices to accommodate expanding economic activities. The buildings are then built high to have more space, or stories, for offices and commercial uses, instead of having more buildings to compete with limited land supply. Building skyscrapers are another solution to the rising demand for land.As for rural areas, there are mainly agriculture activities taking place. Through terracing, farming on steps cut into hillsides, it increases the area of arable land, and maximising the use of existing land use. Also, using hydroponic farming method, less land is needed as the hydroponic farming method does not need soil to grow vegetables, fruits and flowers.

This picture shows skyscrapers in Singapore.

Land Clearance:

As the population increases, so do the needs of the people. As such, more land is needed for development, resulting in massive deforestation projects. Forests are cleared for agricultural purposes. Cattle ranchers need large areas of land for the rearing of the cattle. Plantation agriculture also requires large pieces of land. As such, large areas of forests must be cleared for this type of farming. However, it is not advised to do much of this as deforestation will result in many adverse effects that will affect the environment drastically such as, soil erosion, hydrological and atmospheric problem.

Land Conservation:

In some areas, a government agency may impose a conservation restriction on a landowner. Legal agreement is established to limit the uses of land for the purpose of land conservation. In this way, valuable land can be reserved for a proper development.

yours sincerely. landlovers
6:46 AM