UN-backed floating city built to withstand Category 5 hurricanes is headed to South Korea

The city will be built at or near the coastal city of Busan S. Korea which is in danger from rising seas. This is the first of its kind to be built and if it's successful there will be many more built around the globe.

The goal is to develop a flood-proof city that rises with the sea and produces its own food, energy, and fresh water. Cages underneath the platforms could be used to house scallops, kelp, or other forms of seafood. And aquaponic systems could use waste from fish to fertilize plants.

More than two years ago, a group of builders, engineers, and architects crowded around a table at the United Nations to discuss an ambitious concept: a floating city that could withstand natural disasters, including floods, tsunamis, and Category 5 hurricanes.

The idea wasn't entirely novel: Designers and developers have fantasized for decades about building artificial islands and metropolises on water. Even Homer envisioned a mythical floating city roughly 13 centuries ago.

But those visions were notoriously hard to advance — often because local governments wouldn't sign off on the proposals, citing concerns that there were better uses for the land.

The UN-backed project cleared that hurdle Thursday, when the city of Busan, South Korea, agreed to host a floating city in collaboration with the project's designer, OCEANIX, and the UN Human Settlement Programme (UN-Habitat). Like many coastal cities, Busan is threatened by rising sea levels.

What do you think ATS? I think it could possibly work but I think a wave that's big enough could still cause damage even if the city does float on water. I do applaud this ambitious idea, just being a little cautious i suppose. What says ATS?

www.businessinsider.com...

originally posted by: lostbook
The city will be built at or near the coastal city of Busan S. Korea which is in danger from rising seas. This is the first of its kind to be built and if it's successful there will be many more built around the globe.

The goal is to develop a flood-proof city that rises with the sea and produces its own food, energy, and fresh water. Cages underneath the platforms could be used to house scallops, kelp, or other forms of seafood. And aquaponic systems could use waste from fish to fertilize plants.

More than two years ago, a group of builders, engineers, and architects crowded around a table at the United Nations to discuss an ambitious concept: a floating city that could withstand natural disasters, including floods, tsunamis, and Category 5 hurricanes.

The idea wasn't entirely novel: Designers and developers have fantasized for decades about building artificial islands and metropolises on water. Even Homer envisioned a mythical floating city roughly 13 centuries ago.

But those visions were notoriously hard to advance — often because local governments wouldn't sign off on the proposals, citing concerns that there were better uses for the land.

The UN-backed project cleared that hurdle Thursday, when the city of Busan, South Korea, agreed to host a floating city in collaboration with the project's designer, OCEANIX, and the UN Human Settlement Programme (UN-Habitat). Like many coastal cities, Busan is threatened by rising sea levels.

What do you think ATS? I think it could possibly work but I think a wave that's big enough could still cause damage even if the city does float on water. I do applaud this ambitious idea, just being a little cautious i suppose. What says ATS?

www.businessinsider.com...

This really a cool idea,so many questions first one what the human waste and garbage. Lets face we all pollute the oceans, cruise ship dump their garbage and waste. Hopefully this has a high recyclable rate

It is kind of a trailer park but with boats. I don’t see the problem with the storms as much as where does the sewer go? A storm could break it apart but it could be brought back together easily. Sewage would spread all kinds of diseases from any exposure of the down current water. This is he same reason you don’t use the head on a small boat in harbor.


Edit: I see we have the similar questions on this putnam6.

a reply to: lostbook

It is really impossible to comment without knowing a little of the engineering involved.

What stops it from floating out to sea? Are they connected together? So many questions.

Since none of those answers are available because they have not started to work it out, what we actually have is a pipe dream.

I would not like to be locked in one of these hexagonal platforms when the typhoon hits. Talk about getting sea sick. It would be like being in a non stop earthquake as your house moves with the ocean.

P

a reply to: putnam6

Yeah, I wonder about this also. Maybe there will be a waste treatment facility on the premises...? Waste is treated before it's dumped in the oceans so I would think this place will follow suit.

a reply to: lostbook

I recommend having a front and a back... It's unreasonable to leave an entire city un-backed

"Unregulated innovation" has anyone else ran across those terms when researching these UN floating cities being planned and built world-wide not just S. Korea?

It's the most tantalizing part iMHO

It likely arose from an idea of: Wouldn't be nice if a country or continent or two or three adopted the UN charter/constitution? Hey, I know... Let's make some UN "continents".

f you haven't ever read the world or UN's charter/constitution? UN Charter

Shouldn't they have ankered it long before it started to float to south Korea?
With it being hurricane proof and such... Heading for south Korea.
Not very proof.

You’ve managed just fine! It’s an interesting concept but there seems a lot to be concerned about. Why go to the UN and not the local nation which will be the build site? Because nobody would sign off on it? I imagine costs would be extraordinary.

originally posted by: pheonix358
a reply to: lostbook

It is really impossible to comment without knowing a little of the engineering involved.

What stops it from floating out to sea? Are they connected together? So many questions.

Since none of those answers are available because they have not started to work it out, what we actually have is a pipe dream.

I would not like to be locked in one of these hexagonal platforms when the typhoon hits. Talk about getting sea sick. It would be like being in a non stop earthquake as your house moves with the ocean.

P

originally posted by: lostbook
a reply to: putnam6

Yeah, I wonder about this also. Maybe there will be a waste treatment facility on the premises...? Waste is treated before it's dumped in the oceans so I would think this place will follow suit.

Most times waste is treated but here in the US some places when it floods it's more than the local water treatment plant can handle so they dump the raw sewage sometimes. Happens on southern California beaches all the time.

www.nbcnews.com...

LOS ANGELES — Several Los Angeles-area beaches were closed Monday to swimmers and surfers after 17 million gallons of sewage spilled into Santa Monica Bay from a treatment plant.

Los Angeles County Supervisor Janice Hahn said on Twitter that an unspecified mechanical failure caused the spill Sunday at the Hyperion Water Reclamation Plant.

originally posted by: putnam6

originally posted by: lostbook
a reply to: putnam6

Yeah, I wonder about this also. Maybe there will be a waste treatment facility on the premises...? Waste is treated before it's dumped in the oceans so I would think this place will follow suit.

Most times waste is treated but here in the US some places when it floods it's more than the local water treatment plant can handle so they dump the raw sewage sometimes. Happens on southern California beaches all the time.

www.nbcnews.com...

LOS ANGELES — Several Los Angeles-area beaches were closed Monday to swimmers and surfers after 17 million gallons of sewage spilled into Santa Monica Bay from a treatment plant.

Los Angeles County Supervisor Janice Hahn said on Twitter that an unspecified mechanical failure caused the spill Sunday at the Hyperion Water Reclamation Plant.

Wow, I didn't know that! Thanks for the info. I'll be sure to think twice before getting in the water next time i visit Cali.

a reply to: lostbook

Water World

a reply to: TomCollin

I'm with the smokers on that one; besides how does Costner get the worst roles? Every movie I have seen him appear in? Worst role he's the big screen version of Micheal Landon.

6 hours of two white people on a native reservation, it might sound entertaining to natives until they see it.

One man, one vote, President! OMG what a stinker!

Yes the dumb down of America to make Americans feel good about how it REALLY doesn't work at all.


Who writes that stuff? Is it from failed term papers?

P.S. Better alert the Tsunami on what a damn hurricane is

Great place to live if you like to eat fish. You just have to remember that if you fall in the water, some fish like to eat us.

There was supposedly an old ancient city built on floating pumice rock made from Lava but it was destroyed by some event thousands of years ago. I can't remember what the name of the floating city was anymore.

a reply to: rickymouse

Scurvy?

I don't think adding Lime to cure it, did anything other than sink it.

I don't see floating cities catching on. It won't be cheap to live on one.

a reply to: lostbook

Sounds like more techno distraction for the masses.

I recall as a child being excited by the concept of EPCOT. It didn't really become anything other than a curiosity and later, a theme park for Disney.

Cheers

originally posted by: Crowfoot
a reply to: rickymouse

Scurvy?

I don't think adding Lime to cure it, did anything other than sink it.

I think the city was called Mu or something like that.

If they ate seaweed they wouldn't get Scurvy. They original identified the sailors scurvy by comparing the diet of sailers who got scurvy from those that didn't get scurvy. They knew even back then that certain foods had to be eaten together if they wanted strong sailers and warriers, but I guess a normal staple on the ships was in short supply in Europe that the people in Europe stocked. What was that staple...acetic acid...vinegar. The northern Europeans have had the ability to metabolize vinegar to vitamin C for many centuries. Evidently there was a shortage of pickled herring on those ships. Some cultures used sour Kraut to supply this, others used pickling chemistry. Not all cultures around the world have the ability to turn vinegar into vitamin c well, but the scandinavian area and around there did evolve to do that and those genetic traits still are effective. Kind of pickling information isn't it.