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Floating cities and facilities

17 June 2014


The idea of floating communities and cities is moving off the drawing board towards reality. The scale and complexity vary – from extensions to existing waterfronts to complete, independent settlements for 50,000 people. But it is not only homes that could float: food production, energy generation, data centres, golf courses and even prisons have all been discussed.
What is changing?

In cities such as London, Rotterdam, Chicago and Boston floating communities and floating waterfront developments are being explored for leisure and housing. They are extensions of existing developments and tied in with existing systems. Other developments go much further. They are creating self-contained facilities which aim to be as eco-friendly and sustainable as possible, providing food using hydroponics, including green spaces for animals and residents, generating energy from wave and solar power, harvesting water and using desalination, and managing waste with composting toilets.

Cities, especially in emerging countries, face significant challenges in providing food for citizens. One option, Sealeaf is inspired by and modelled on traditional floating farms in Bangladesh, but the modern version can produce 18 crops per year compared with two in traditional farms, and has controlled sunlight to improve growing. Local people could come by boat to harvest the crops. Another scheme suggests using floating greenhouses with hydroponic and aeroponic – spraying crops with water and nutrients – technology. They are aiming for markets such as the US, Singapore or Israel- and estimate that 2.5 acre floating farm would cost about $3 million.

Implications

Cities, especially in emerging economies, face huge challenges and are not only potentially economic powerhouses but also major sources of pollution, GHG emissions, and disease.

While floating communities are unlikely to solve the world’s housing crisis, food supply problems or reduce emissions levels in the short term, they may help develop technologies which can make cities and houses more sustainable in the long term. Small scale structures which are completely self-contained are already possible; these developments may help scale the systems up to be able to cater for whole communities, on land too.

To find more resources on Shaping Tomorrow about floating cities and other floating facilities some of which were used in this Trend Alert. View Floating Cities report.

Also, click here to find out how Shaping Tomorrow can help your organisation rapidly assess and respond to these and other key issues affecting your business.

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