A prototype floating city will be built in South Korea with the support of the United Nations.
The new floating city in South Korea will be flood-proof and fully self-sufficient. This will allow its inhabitants to survive with rising sea levels and, in theory, without communication with the outside world. The city will produce its own food, energy and fresh water. The cages under the platforms can be used to house scallops, seaweed or other types of seafood. And aquaponic systems will convert fish waste to fertilize plants.
The city of Busan in the Republic of Korea, UN-Habitat (United Nations Human Settlements Program) and OCEANIX signed a landmark agreement to build the world’s first prototype floating city with a sustainable economy. It is planned that such a settlement will not be threatened by rising sea levels.
As you know, coastal cities are more threatened than others by climate change. In the future, floods will destroy urban infrastructure, forcing millions of climate refugees to flee their homes. Today, two out of five people in the world live within 100 km of the coast, and 90% of metropolitan areas around the world are vulnerable to rising sea levels.
The Floating City is conceived as a flood-proof infrastructure that produces its own food, energy and fresh water with fully integrated zero-waste closed systems. “Resilient floating cities are part of the arsenal of climate change adaptation strategies available to us. Instead of fighting with water, let’s learn to live in harmony with it. Busan is an ideal choice for deploying a groundbreaking prototype city, ”said UN-Habitat Executive Director Maimunah Mohd Sharif. Like many coastal cities, Busan is threatened by rising sea levels. At the same time, the UN noted the technological development of South Korea – the country is ready to implement a complex project.
The floating city OCEANIX is essentially a set of hexagonal platforms located on the water. Hexagons are widely considered to be one of the most effective architectural forms: they allow builders to save both space and materials.
The city’s platforms will be reinforced with limestone, two to three times harder than concrete, but still floating. This material is created by exposing underwater minerals to an electric current. Over time, it becomes stronger and stronger and can recover. The city’s design has not yet been approved – OCEANIX has not yet decided on the size of the city. The preliminary cost of the project is about $ 200 million, the construction itself will last about three years.
