Editing Island (section)

== Artificial islands ==
{{Main|Artificial island}}

[[File:Kansai International Airport Aerial photograph.2007.jpg|alt=A satellite image of an artificial island in use as an airport. Several runways are visible.|thumb|[[Kansai International Airport]] in [[Osaka]] is built on an artificial island.]]

For hundreds of years, islands have been created through [[land reclamation]].<ref name=":18">{{Cite web |last1=Fisher |first1=Richard |last2=Hirschfeld |first2=Javier |date=January 6, 2022 |title=Why we are in 'the age of artificial islands' |url=https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20220105-why-were-in-the-age-of-artificial-islands |access-date=July 11, 2024 |website=www.bbc.com |language=en-GB}}</ref> One of the first recorded instances of this when people of the [[Solomon Islands]] created eighty such islands by piling coral and rock in the [[Lau Lagoon]].<ref name=":18" /> One traditional way of constructing islands is with the use of a [[revetment]]. Sandbags or stones are dropped with a barge into the sea to bring the land level slightly out of the water. The island area is then filled with sand or gravel, followed by a construction of this revetment to hold it together.<ref name=":19">{{Cite book |last1=Fang |first1=Huacan |url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/book/9780123969774/offshore-operation-facilities |title=Offshore operation facilities: equipment and procedures |last2=Duan |first2=Menglan |date=2014 |publisher=Elsevier, GPP |isbn=978-0-12-396977-4 |location=Amsterdam ; Boston |chapter=3.7.3 The Artificial Island}}</ref> Islands have also been constructed with a permanent [[Caisson (engineering)|caisson]], a steel or concrete structure built in a closed loop and then filled with sand.<ref name=":19" />

Some modern islands have been constructed by pouring millions of tons of sand into the sea, such as with [[The Pearl Island|Pearl Island]] in Qatar or the [[Palm Islands]] in Dubai.<ref name=":18" /> These islands are usually created for [[real estate development]], and are sold for private ownership or construction of housing.<ref name=":18" /> [[Oil platform|Offshore oil platforms]] have also been described as a type of island. Some atolls have been covered in concrete to create artificial islands for military purposes, such as those created by China in the [[South China Sea]].<ref name=":18" /><ref name=":26">{{Cite web |last=Mirasola |first=Christopher |date=July 15, 2015 |title=What Makes an Island? Land Reclamation and the South China Sea Arbitration |url=https://amti.csis.org/what-makes-an-island-land-reclamation-and-the-south-china-sea-arbitration/ |access-date=July 11, 2024 |website=Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative |language=en-US}}</ref> These atolls were previously low-tide elevations, landmasses that are only above water during [[low tide]]. The [[United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea]] indicates that these islands may not have the same legal status as a naturally occurring island, and as such may not confer the same legal rights.<ref name=":26" />