The period between 1993 and 2002 was marked by several
large reclamation projects, by the end of which the area of
intertidal coral reef habitat was just 10.13 km2. The most prominent
changes included: 1) the reclamation and combining of the
Ayer group of islands and their fringing reefs into Jurong Island
for the petrochemical industry; 2) the expansion of Sentosa Island
to create land for a marina and exclusive residences
(Ramcharan, 2002); and 3) the construction of the bund around
Semakau landfill (Chou et al., 2004), covering the fringing reef of
a neighbouring island, the eastern shore of P. Semakau and the
patch reefs in between. The remaining reef along the coast of P.
Semakau was protected during the reclamation process (Chou
and Tun, 2007) and an extensive 1.23 km2 of reef flat was still
present in 2002.