Rethinking and comprehensive planning of the floating city concept

Sea level rise, coastal erosion and climate change are major stressors for coastal communities, whose expansion may be also limited by land scarcity and environmental issues. Floating cities may represent an interesting solution, but require further conceptual development, both in terms of technological means and architectural vision. Furthermore, their feasibility and sustainability still need to be explored more in depth. In view of these gaps, here we propose an innovative floating city vision, based on a comprehensive approach, including qualitative and quantitative analyses and ranging between all the above-mentioned topics. The concept is built around three pillars: resilience, sustainability, and urban welfare, corresponding to the three elements of water, nature, and man, respectively. A preliminary quantitative analysis about space, food and energy requirements confirms the feasibility of the floating city and provides a benchmark for future investigation on similar concepts. A design focus on resilience, sustainability, and urban welfare can help the concept of floating cities to reach its potential for relieving land scarcity as well as demands on coastlines, suggests an analysis of space, food and energy requirements.