Can floating homes make coastal communities resilient to climate risks?
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For coastal communities, urban planning and smart technologies are key to climate adaptation and mitigation. Futuristic designs for flood-resilient settlements, or 'climatopias', are gaining popularity, especially in areas projected to be underwater in a few decades. These large infrastructure projects are being touted by governments and developers as tools to expand the availability of housing, reduce pressures on land, enhance energy efficiency, promote eco-friendly transportation and lessen the effects of flooding. Critics view them as technological fantasies aimed at growing the value of the property market near oceans, lagoons and rivers.
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The idea of living on water is not new. It has been traced back to around ad 700 during the Tang Dynasty in China. On Lake Titicaca in Peru, the Indigenous Uros People have long settled on artificial islands made from roots and reeds. Homes and villages on stilts are widespread, from Ha Long Bay in Vietnam to Chong Kneas in Cambodia, Ganvie in Benin and Makoko in Nigeria. Amsterdam, Jakarta, Mexico City and Seattle in Washington have long embraced houseboats and floating markets.
Unlike the infrastructure in such traditional communities, climatopias are designed to be high-tech cities equipped with solar panels for generating electricity, deep-sea cooling systems, health-care centres, schools, recreational areas and businesses.
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Planners, engineers and environmental specialists must assess the construction materials, structural integrity, safety, cost, market demand and financial sustainability of climatopia projects.
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